Leave the World Behind (2023)
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Leave the World Behind Movie Review
Leave the World Behind is a 2023 disaster psychological thriller film directed by Sam Esmail and starring Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali. It’s an interesting take on this genre.
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“No one is in control. No one is pulling the strings“
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A family’s getaway to a luxurious rental home takes an ominous turn when a cyber attack knocks out their devices and two strangers appear at their door. This movie received pretty strong reviews from critics and it mostly frustrated audiences. It is easy to see why it’s so polarizing given that this is a more psychological and intimate take on a disaster movie, very different from the larger, action-oriented takes on these stories that we usually get.
While the basic premise of hackers attacking satellites and everybody losing technology was a very unique, relevant one for this day and age, the eventual realization that this was orchestrated by different countries against just the US felt overly paranoid and simply implausible. The US would be the last country where a civil or world war would spring, so this entire conceit was preposterous to me.
Regardless of that, I thoroughly enjoyed this film’s psychological approach that focuses on how people would really react to such a catastrophe. The film’s critique of paranoia and distrust was particularly prevalent as it signifies the importance of uniting together against a common threat instead of separating in different directions. The characters’ constant panicking and confusion was also very realistic for this type of apocalyptic scenario.
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Yes, the ending of the movie is obviously one that favored ambiguity and personal triumph instead of answering its rising questions. This is one of those movies that incorporate so many intriguing plot points and ideas only to leave them unanswered. However, this approach actually worked in this instance as after all you would never get a satisfying ending to any of these disaster stories either way, so it’s best to just leave it on an ambiguous note. That final scene further amplified that this is not your standard disaster movie and mostly for the better.
The characters in Leave the World Behind are mostly unlikable, but that doesn’t mean that they’re bad characters. Quite the opposite actually as most are so well developed. Rose is the only likable child in the cast and that last moment where she finally managed to watch the finale to her favorite show in spite of all the terrible things happening around her signified the importance of hobbies and pastimes, especially during hardship. Archie is not particularly well developed and Kevin Bacon, though great himself, performed as this overly antagonistic, somewhat unrealistic character.
I also did not care for Ruth whose distrust of white people was borderline racist at times. Her racial commentary was highly toxic, but thankfully the film dealt with the theme of trust, so this issue being brought up did not stick like a sore thumb. Ethan Hawke was solid, but his character was overly naïve in certain moments, but his optimism for humanity interestingly contrasted his wife’s disillusion with people. Amanda was by far the most relatable character of the bunch as she had a lot of unfortunately hard truths to share about humanity. Julia Roberts was phenomenal in her best role in quite a while. I also found Mahershala Ali excellent as he always is and the dynamic between him and Roberts was great.
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Although the dialogue can be too on-the-nose, the film still ended up exploring its themes mostly successfully. The acting is strong across the board while the directing from Sam Esmail is at times admired. The score is fittingly menacing throughout while the cinematography is incredible. This is a rare Netflix movie that truly should have been sent to theaters as the camera moved around the house in such an orchestral manner, making for a dizzying feel that fitted its apocalyptic story so well. The outside scenes fared even better as they included so much memorable imagery with the self-driving cars and the deer pack being the most memorable of the bunch. This is the type of film that includes so many striking sequences that individually were much better than the movie fared as a whole.
Leave the World Behind is a very strong disaster flick. I do get why some people would be disappointed with its ending as it favored ambiguity over answering its questions, but this is the type of film that was more concerned with the psychological elements of apocalyptic stories than with the bigger scope of things, so ultimately this approach really worked. The overall conceit is clunky and cringe-worthy in some of the details, but the character dynamics were interesting and the movie’s themes were well explored, though the dialogue was far from subtle. The highlights were the movie’s eerie score and its dizzyingly kinetic cinematography. The flick has so much cool imagery throughout. It’s a rare Netflix feature that is so cinematic that it should have been sent to theaters.
My Rating – 4
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