We’ve been waiting to hear more about this one. Sam Esmail’s “Leave the World Behind” finally has a full trailer. It will open the 37th AFI Film Festival tomorrow night and has already been dated to stream via Netflix on December 8th.
Based on the 2020 novel of the same name by Rumaan Alam, word is that the film, from Esmail, the creator of Mr. Robot, had test-screened four different endings. Mahershala Ali, Kevin Bacon and Ethan Hawke co-star with Roberts. Here’s the official synopsis via Netflix:
An Airbnb family vacation on Long Island is interrupted by two strangers bearing news of a mysterious blackout. As the threat grows more imminent, both families must decide how best to survive the potential crisis, all while grappling with their own place in this collapsing world.
The trailer starts off with Hawke and Roberts’ characters embarking on the perfect vacation, in an Airbnb rental, for them and their kids. Suddenly, their Wi-Fi stops working, and then they are visited by another couple who claims the house is theirs. Soon, the apocalypse comes into the equation.
I wouldn’t get my expectations too high for this one. It hasn’t appeared at any of the primo fall fests (Venice, Telluride, TIFF) and instead opted for an AFI dumping ground. Test screening reactions were also all over the place back in April.
Criterion's December lineup has some great additions to the library, but the title that jumped out at me is Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man," which officially joins the Collection on December 8.