TL;DR – What happens when the world slips away from you but only fragments at a time until you don’t even realise you ran off a ledge?

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

Leave the World Behind Review –

The disaster film is such an intriguing genre, especially when you are not sure what disaster you are in or even if there is one going on. For me, it is not the disasters themselves that bring the core of the work, but how people respond to the crisis. This week, we look at a film that focuses mainly on that, and I found it to be deeply compelling.  

So to set the scene, Amanda Sandford (Julia Roberts) and her husband Clay (Ethan Hawke) have had a long, stressful year, and one morning, as Amanda was up not sleeping, she decided to randomly book the family for a trip away in a hamlet by the beach. The aim is to leave the world behind for a time, and the house absolutely provides all of that. All is going well until an oil tanker crashes into the beach, and the TV and Wi-Fi stops working. Which is when late at night, there is a knock on the door when the purported owners of the house, G.H. Scott (Mahershala Ali) and his daughter Ruth (Myha’la), arrive and decide to stay.   

One of the things that I liked is the understandable tension that you find throughout the film. Is Amanda being understandably hesitant about there being strangers in her home? Or does she not believe GH because he is Black? On that front, is GH just as out of contact as the rest, or does he know something he is not telling everyone else? Or even, is there something truly bad going on, or can people just not cope with their digital devices not working for a day or two? You can feel secrets bubbling under the surface, just waiting to explode. This happens before we get an extended montage of Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali dancing, which might be the most delightful part of the film.

When it comes to the production of the film, unlike a lot of streaming films, this has depth in its cinematography and lighting that highlights the actors and not crushing them into the backgrounds. To add to this, the musical score does not hide in the background. It stakes itself loud and proud that something terrible is coming their way. All of these production choices help raise the tension, which reaches an almost palpable level at times. Also, they did an outstanding job on the digital animals; you can feel their weight and presence, which usually gets lost, and you need it in a film like this.

What I liked was the whole run time makes you wonder just what, if anything, is going on. We get little nuggets of information, and if you understand Spanish and/or Arabic, then you might have a better insight into what goes on. The tragedy could have been nothing from the start, but as the planes start to fall, you know something real is going on. But what is it? Are we looking at bargain-basement terrorists? Is it cyber terrorists, or are they at war? Hell, is it aliens or even something more supernatural? The fact that it could land anywhere from the benign to the metaphysical makes this fascinating to watch. It does not hurt that every section of the film is bookended with these shots from space that get more menacing.   

In the end, do we recommend Leave the World Behind? While I am not sure it entirely stuck the landing, but at least they can watch Farscape now. I was there for the entire ride to get there. It was intriguing and compelling and more than a bit of a surprise. If you liked Leave the World Behind, then I would recommend to you Greenland.      

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you watched Leave the World Behind?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 


Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Leave the World Behind
Directed by – Sam Esmail
Screenplay by – Sam Esmail
Based on – Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
Music by – Mac Quayle
Cinematography by – Tod Campbell
Edited by – Lisa Lassek
Production/Distribution Companies – Esmail Corp, Red Om Films, Higher Ground Productions & Netflix
Starring – Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, Myha’la, Farrah Mackenzie, Charlie Evans & Kevin Bacon
Rating – Australia: M;