What to watch: Don't Die' harpoons our social media addiction

"Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die: Gore Verbinski's mad, mad, mad epic is angry, angry, angry. And with good reason. The apocalyptic dramedy shoots its poison-tipped arrows at two of the most deserving targets in America right now: our addiction to social media and our willingness to let AI assume command of our lives. Both trends get eviscerated, trashed and stomped on (this is by no means a subtle film) in cathartic ways."

"A stylized and energetic filmmaker, Verbinski (The Ring, the first three Pirates of Caribbean movies) and screenwriter Matthew Robinson shovel out the satire and social/political commentary more effectively and with more finesse than 2021's messy Don't Look Up with Leonardo Di Caprio and Jennifer Lawrence. Daly City veteran and White Lotus guest star Sam Rockwell leans into his crazy side as a nameless shaggy doomsday soothsayer who has his finger on a detonator and is claiming that the end is nigh due to AI."

"Using a framework a la Weapons and Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia (and even more so Netflix's Black Mirror) the film tells three stories about their wranglings with tech. One involves a substitute school teacher (Michael Pena, in one of his best performance in years) and teacher/girlfriend Janet (Zazi Beetz) as they fend off a herd of student phone addicts; another is about a grief-stricken mother (Juno Temple) who resorts to AI to resurrect her dead son,"

Gore Verbinski directs an apocalyptic dramedy that skewers social media addiction and AI dependence. The film uses a triptych structure to tell three intertwined stories about people grappling with technology. Sam Rockwell plays a nameless doomsday soothsayer warning of AI takeover. Michael Peña portrays a substitute teacher battling phone-addicted students alongside Janet, played by Zazi Beetz. Juno Temple plays a grief-stricken mother who turns to AI to resurrect her son killed in a school shooting. Haley Lu Richardson plays a princess-for-hire who is allergic to social media. The tone is stylized, energetic and frequently angry, offering cathartic satire that some may find heavy-handed.

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