On a lovely day, and sickened by the stagnant public of her suburb, Amanda Sanford (Julia Roberts) books her family a weekend away in the countryside on a whim. Amanda got a nice price on a relaxing rental house, yet when two people appear on the doorstep in the middle of the night – the suited G.H. Scott (Mahershala Ali) and his supposed daughter Ruth (Myha’la) – Amanda is suspicious when they say they are the owners, and want to share the night. The internet is out, so Amanda, along with her more hospitable husband Clay (Ethan Hawke), can’t check the rental agreement, to figure out their rights. But the internet being out soon becomes the first of many troubling occurrences outside the home, and the weary foursome unite amongst concerns of a greater conspiracy is at play. Sam Esmail directs his own adaptation of Rumaan Alam’s novel, Leave the World Behind.
Since I see as many movies as I do, I often notice patterns and tracks a movie will follow, so it was refreshing to watch Leave the World Behind without a straightforward course, and not even wanting to predict where it was going. Could it be aliens? Could it be nothing? Literally everything, and everything in between everything, is on the table, and I was awash with intrigue. I love the way the movie is shot, the framing and camera movement – I think I’ve come to realise I’m really easy to impress when it comes to directing, although I also believe it requires a masterful eye to make it look easy, and I’d say Esmail has got it – more movies from him now, please. The movie is also divided into Parts, and I often groan when I see that, because if a movie is displeasing, I can usually measure how long it still has to go, by how many Parts have passed, since a structure is set 😪 But all these Parts were absorbing, ending on high notes, and with their titles adding forewarned anticipation. The first Part is the most resounding, helped along by terrific performances and an ominous sound design, and leading into the second Part, where I will admit a time came where the movie was quickly getting to a stage where I felt something needed to happen – the movie was building momentum, and it’s one thing to draw out a mystery, and another thing to lose that good will. Luckily, when a bloody sky hopper starts dropping a mountain of pamphlets to coat the sky red, that’s enough to keep me interested again; and the deer, sirens and plane crashes aren’t amiss either 😊 The Tesla pileup was my favourite instant. Although the tension in Leave the World Behind is never as intense as what’s achieved in Crash, or as classy as something Christopher Nolan would achieve in his sleep, there’s certainly a lot of it, and credit where credit’s due, especially when three such portions are edited together to create one big block of suspense around the middle. This movie does feel like a novel adaptation, whether you’re into that or not, where cliffhangers would exist at the end of each chapter.
I know, I write about movies and gush over actresses and actors often, but allow me to feel like a big Queen when I announce that it was so tranquil to be in the presence of Julia Roberts again 🤗 I don’t think she’s acted in anything for ages… Hang on, let me check – oh, there was Ticket to Paradise last year, of course, which I missed, but then there was Ben is Back before that, way back in 2018, so it has been a while. Welcome back Julia, and Leave the World Behind does feel a little nostalgic, having such an immense actress from the 90s and 2000s helping execute such a stylish modern day thriller. Also, of course, I’m impressed by my girl, Myha’la – I felt seen when she said every one of this vacationing family was weird or wants to touch her, because yeah… I would eat her ass with a spoon. (And just like that, I lose my ‘Queen’ status, and move all the way back into ‘voyeuristic predator’). But if I could straighten up, and be professional once again, what I mean to write is that Myha’la truly holds her own alongside acting legends; two worthy Academy Award winners, and Ethan Hawke, who I often consider Hollywood’s top talent for gusto – he’ll try anything and usually makes the most of it. I’ve also said that the cast of Bodies Bodies Bodies would be a catalogue of future stars, and Leave the World Behind contains some pretty strong evidence in my favour, when you see Myha’la standing alongside Roberts, Ali, and Hawke, and presenting like an equal. Have I made my point? You go girl! 😊 I also really like the complexity within Ali’s character the best. It’s not uncommon for an apocalyptic tale to contain a notion that the mildest of polite men need to realise the dire circumstances they’re in, but I applaud this movie for whenever it beat that drum. Ruth has that conversation with her father, telling him to ‘get hard’, and I think the shading Ali brings to the performance, especially in the climactic foray with Danny (Kevin Bacon), sees that point register full circle, where it could’ve been overlooked amongst many other tensions. Nice work, Ali.
I think this movie is a lot like Twilight – sure, if you read it, it’s pretty basic stuff, but it did capture the minds of an entire generation of its target audience, and so it touched on something internal, whether it be based or otherwise. Perhaps I’m fortunate; I’ve listened to the right things to position myself to see that this ‘extreme’ example of a war-like attack isn’t out of the realm of possibility – just listening to Mike Baker enough times on the Joe Rogan Experience will tell of that … The thought of the U.S.’s antagonists ganging up and utilising disabling tactics on the west…yeah, quite a terrifying thought-exercise to play out. The only part of the ending that was perhaps a bit whiffy, was the idea that the animals were trying to warn the people about the calamitous doom ahead; how very humancentric, especially after Amanda and Ruth agree on a rant that humankind have usurped and pissed off everything on this planet – you think animals are going to forgive and lend a hoof on Day 2 of the changing tides? Then again, I suppose it’s only really the young daughter Rose (Farrah Mackenzie) who postulates this, while the deer scare the wits out of Ruth, so maybe this idea is more evidential of Amanda’s knock on humans, and not an assertion taken by the movie. The movie also always wants to circle back to Amanda’s dislike and mistrust of people, but I never found her to be outlandishly unreasonable. I also don’t think Kevin Bacon’s character was too unreasonable either – in fact, he was quite directly civil, considering his preparedness, although the altercation smooths itself out in the end, on the just side of humanity, and actually leaves this tale with something to feel hopeful about, alongside Amanda in the woods, rushing to Ruth’s aid as her new surrogate mother 👍
What’s with Netflix releasing highly political, apocalyptic-charged thrillers around the same time each year? Don’t Look Up, Bird Box, and even Glass Onion dealt with big themes about how the world operates. Perhaps there’s a conspiracy at play in that too… Yeah, think about it 🤨 Leave the World Behind, of course, reminded me, in parts, of the best of Lost, with the epic planes crashing, the constant mystery, random noises, and animals – only, instead of a frickin’ polar bear, there’s an arbitrary flock of flamingoes to keep it nice and original. As the starting chapter of an apocalyptic survival story, I think this movie might be up there with the best I’ve seen, and if only Fear the Walking Dead had established itself or its characters half as well as this, it may’ve retained a watcher out of me. And there you go – there’s two new TV shows for young Rose to begin watching right after completing the last episode of Friends 😄 The fact that Rose finds her way to a DVD room, to finish her show, was a neat end point that was completely obvious, but also a lovely example of the fitting writing that made this movie a gas. I want to watch it again.
4.5
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