A few weeks ago, I had posted my review of Sam Esmail’s “Leave the World Behind.” I did not expect it to become this much of a hot button topic.
If there’s one movie, theatrical or not, that has gotten people talking this month, it’s Esmail’s film. The apocalyptic thriller, an adaptation of Rumaan Alam’s novel, has been the No. 1 movie in the U.S. on Netflix for almost two weeks now.
The film follows two families during a nationwide crisis that might possibly involve a massive cyberattack across the United States. The crisis is not entirely defined and the viewer is only given fragmented clues to piece it all together. Suffice to say, Esmail's film is a realistic depiction of imminent and coordinated societal collapse.
There have been polarized reactions coming in from an assortment political commentators who believe the film to be anti-white. Some are even speculating that the film’s producer, a certain Barack Obama, had nefarious intentions in making a film about civil war in America. I won’t go further, you can Google all that stuff.
It is the first feature film from High Ground, the production company founded by Obama and his wife, Michelle. During press for the film, Esmail had mentioned that Obama had sent “a lot of [script] notes” and even consulted on many parts of the film, some of the notes the former president shared with Esmail “scared the f*** out of me,” the director admitted.
Politics aside, what matters to me is that ”Leave the World Behind” is actually a good film. Esmail’s direction invokes Hitchcock in confidently terrifying ways. This is set in a reality-based setting, so you do feel as though almost every moment can happen in our world. It asks questions that are very uncomfortable to ponder, but maybe ones that we should?
The answers, or lack thereof, revealed in the last few minutes, are no doubt polarizing and have sparked intense conversation. I’m not sure if it works as an ending, but it did get a rise out of me. It provokes something inside of you.
That’s the thing about “Leave the World Behind,” it constantly fascinates, continuously exuding a feeling of unease. It’s well-acted, well-crafted and says something about the current state of the world, not to mention our overreliance on technology. In the film, civilization collapses and it’s rarely felt this real.
What did our readers think of this film? It’s your turn to chime in.
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.