Leave the World Behind

What would you do if you suddenly began experiencing a series of anomalous, apocalyptic-style events? With communications crippled and transportation severely hampered, it’s impossible to figure out what’s happening or how to formulate a feasible exit strategy. Yet, as all this is unfolding, the troubling and unexplained events continue unabated. Now what? Such is the chilling experience of an upscale New York City couple and their two children who unwittingly wind up sharing a luxurious Long Island vacation home with the wealthy property owner and his adult daughter in the midst of all this chaos. As they struggle to determine what’s transpiring, they come upon revelations about themselves, one another and the world at large, which clearly is not everything it appears or has been made out to be. The result is a creepy but astute cautionary tale, one we’d be wise to heed given current sociopolitical trends and prevailing conditions. While director Sam Esmail's second feature outing generally manages to maintain a certain edge-of-the-seat quality, it could nevertheless stand to use some trimming to pick up the pace in spots, especially in several instances where the dialogue becomes strained and in others where the narrative veers into needlessly and cryptically stringing viewers along from one enigmatic event to another. In addition, while I am certainly no prude when it comes to off-color language, the screenplay contains a surprisingly inordinate number of f-bombs, a script device that seems decidedly inappropriate, often out of place and vastly overused. The picture makes up for this with a fine ensemble cast, particularly in the performances of Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke and Kevin Bacon, as well as some intriguing cinematography, though the film’s inconsistent soundtrack/score doesn’t always work as well as it could have. “Leave the World Behind” truly comes across as a sincere effort at telling a compelling, suspenseful and enlightening tale, but it doesn’t always get all of the components right. That doesn’t mean it’s not worth watching, but the term “cautionary tale” is certainly apropos in describing more than just its insightful content.

Psychological thriller film written, directed and produced by Sam Esmail (Mr. Robot Series), based on the 2020 novel of the same name by Rumaan Alam, with some alterations in the screenplay. First of all what called my attention was the Obama's interest in the movie that is explained by a-) He is a huge fan of the book; a-) Obviously as an ex-president he had insight into the military parts; To those who don't know what to expect about the movie I can call it a mix of M. Night Shyamalan and Jordan Pelee with the obvious personal touch of the director based by the social-technologic chaos that we seen in Mr. Robot. Btw this was the fact that gave in most of the story to me well in the start of the movie events. The movie basically tells what happens when a up-mid class white family goes into vacations into a Airbnb upstate NY high-class house for vacations and strange events like an oil tanker losing control and crashing into beach (hmmmm let me guess... no GPS?) and internet stops unexpectedly (hmmm let me guess cyberattacks? coup d'etat by unknow enemies????) and wild life starts to act strangely, like deer and birds (this is the MNS part, probably because of some sort of disruptive effect that I suspect in the start to be a solar flare until it mentioned only in US when I kill'd the movie plot). The comes the J. Pelee part when a black father and daughter shows up in the house after the strange effects telling they are the ones that own the house and came back for retreat of the chaos. Yeah racial tension on. Individually all characters have their little details of psychology and backstory which is a nice touch and well done part of the movie. And so are the acting. I guess that my main problem is watching too much stuff - there is a point that to get a movie that introduce something unique to you, specially knowing the background of the directors and writers is something difficult to impress yourself. Out of these plot parts the movie have some cool paranoid ideas (that actually aren't so paranoid because they would work as in the movie like Obama were advised) and a very nice soundtrack by Mac Quayle (Mr Robot, American Horror Story) and cinematography with some cool and interesting cameras shots by Tod Campbell (Stranger Things, Mr Robot, Boyhood). Overall it isn't a bad movie - on contraire it is interesting if you don't know what to expect. Not bad, but the racial part was unnecessary imo. Even so, for me it is one of the good movies of 2023 so it win a heart too. My score: 7.5 out of 10 / B+.

Decent film, but the ending sucks a$$. Not sure how or why they chose to end this way instead of tying up loose ends, but "Hollywood" is notorious for ruining many a movie by taking a dump on the ending. There were some fine performances, most notably from Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, and Ethan Hawke. And we got Kevin Bacon for literally 5 mins., if that. But with the names attached to this film, it couldn't have come into being cheaply, so to kill all word-of-mouth with a crap ending makes absolutely no sense. It was a good storyline and plot twists and such, so I can bet it was a decent book. Makes me want to pick it up and compare now...

The movie only told us you should buy a big house for the emergency.

Acting! They're good. Everyone is so good and does some acting. Gets silly in the end. Fun to watch.

I'm amazed by the positive reviews this one is receiving. For me, Leave the World Behind, feels like a stew of half baked conspiracy theories and stereotypes of modern Westerners, set against a politely apocalyptic, backdrop. People are lazy, apathetic, paranoid, indulgent and ultimately, divided, even at the end. This may be partly true but I don't think its in any way broadly representative of humanity. Perhaps, in truth, it reflects an elite view of ordinary people, they themselves don't really know and just as tellingly, understand? Suffice to say, I can only speculate..... Its unsurprising then, that the ending to this tale has no real punch. I feel this is due to what I would characterise as general lack of awareness in this film, that can only lead to a meek conclusion. Are there any positives here? Well the acting is decent if unremarkable. The more surreal scenes, such as automated, driver less, Tesla's piling up like crisp white cardboard, is, on a certain level, captivating. In summary, a film that feels like it wants to say "something" but is hampered by its lack of insight, depriving it of a resonating voice.

For the most part Leave the World Behind, an adaptation of the novel by the same name directed by Mr. Robot's Sam Esmail. Some good performances, especially by Ethan Hawke, and some nice tension building between the two families. There is an excellent plane crash scene that is memorable. Kevin bacon is in it! I learned after watching this movie that it was produced by the Obamas, which is pretty weird.

This movie is watchable but pretty dull for an end of the world movie. The whole mystery woo woo sound track through the first half is heavy handed and detracted from any actual suspense. The biggest problem with the movie overall is that I just don't buy it. I don't buy the characters or the motivations for any of their actions or their interactions with each other, despite it being filled with big name actors who should be able to sell it to me. But what I really wanna know is, what is in those pills? Gotta stock up.

Just another stupid American movie...