The two films today aren’t your usual algorithm-based ‘drops’ on our favorite streaming services. They’re packed with more serious, prestige considerations - but as to whether they uniformly spell success, is another matter altogether.

Don’t Look Up (Netflix USA) - As the director and screenplay co-writer of a film like The Big Short, Adam McKay carries enough weight so that his films are highly anticipated. He’s known for tackling weighty, topical issues; and blending drama with tongue in cheek humor, so that while something serious is being said, we’re still being entertained. Don’t Look Up has had buzz attached to it from the outset, as the cast is led by Leonardo diCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence. Other heavyweight names attached to the project include Meryl Streep, Cate Mark Rylance, Jonah Hill, Ariana Grande, and the omnipresent Timothée Chalamet. So on the casting alone, if you consider the acting chops assembled for the film, it looked like this was an Oscar-worthy contender.

What we were informed about the premise - two nerdy astronomers (DiCaprio and Lawrence) trying to get the message across that a planet-killer asteroid is heading straight to Earth, also signalled that if McKay could harness his sly trademark humor to the film, this would be something special. Now, I don’t know if the film was trying to be too many things at one go, or if McKay just missed the boat on this one, but it seems it can’t make up its mind on whether to be an apocalyptic drama, a satire, or a comedy - and ends up having its heart in the right places, but just missing the mark, and ending up ‘undercooked’. There’s a lot of smart stuff being said about media, celebrity, politicians, social media and disinformation - but one gets the idea that it’s all running commentary without true structure as a film experience. Plus why get so many good actors, and have them doing such light lifting.

Swan Song (AppleTV+) - With a SciFi premise that revolves around cloning and AI’s, this film bravely tackles the morality and deeper implications of how cloning could be utilized in the very near future. Mahershala Ali plays our lead protagonist, and he’s struck down by a terminal illness with a short period of time left in this world. A family man (his wife is played by Naomie Harris), he inexplicably decides to keep her out of the loop of his medical situation, in the belief that he’d like to spare them the pain of that kind of knowledge. He then proceeds to hook up with a creepy doctor (Glenn Close), and decides to clone himself - and the film embarks on this journey of his spending time with the clone in the hope that his wife will never suspect the difference, and their lives may go on, even after his death.

Now right there, some of you may question this unilateral decision, feeling what sort of marriage or relationship do the couple have that the husband could reasonably withhold this kind of information from his wife. But if you’ll suspend disbelief, this film does valiantly tackle the thorny issue of whether the husband can get away with this. Ali plays his role stoically, and it is good to see him in the center of a film; as of late, it has been walk-one’s and cameos that’s been occupying his screen time. No spoilers here, so I won’t delve into the plot twists and the narrative per se. Swan Song asks the right questions and faces up to the issues inherent in the premise; but you may be wondering, at the end, if the right answers are provided or whether the resolution arrives at is even plausible. An intriguing ride, with the journey more interesting than the conclusion.