From Jeremy Kibler

Apocalyptic films are so common that it feels like a miracle when an exceptionally executed example of one comes along. That’s the case with Leave the World Behind, an adaptation of Rumaan Alam’s 2020 novel that also marks Sam Esmail’s exceedingly confident writing-directing feature debut. The film is powered by A-list talent like Julia Roberts, but it’s really a testament to every component of the bravura filmmaking on display. It’s tightly written, terrifically well-acted, genuinely nerve-shredding and startling, expertly paced, and bizarrely funny.

Roberts plays Amanda Sandford, a Brooklynite who books a luxury home in Long Island for a weekend getaway with her professor husband, Clay (Ethan Hawke), and their two kids, 16-year-old Archie (Charlie Evans) and 13-year-old Rose (Farrah Mackenzie). Amanda desperately wants to get away from people, and Clay is just going with the flow. The rental is spacious, beautiful, and just what they need, but their relaxation takes a turn when the family goes to the beach, where they witness a giant oil tanker moving closer and closer until it beaches. Back at the house, the internet goes out and their phones don’t work either. After the kids go to bed, the doorbell rings and it’s George “G.H.” Scott (Mahershala Ali), the Black owner of the house, and his snarky twentysomething daughter Ruth (Myha’la). According to them, a blackout has swept the city and they were hoping to stay the night until understanding what’s going on. Amanda is extremely suspicious, but whether it’s a cyberattack, an invasion, or the end of the world, something is happening, and this group must come to terms with it together. 

Divided into parts, Leave the World Behind sustains a pall of foreboding and suspense for all 141 minutes. With the source material hitting the year of the pandemic, the story almost feels prescient in how many felt — the isolation, the lack of answers, the fear of mortality, etc. A global pandemic may not be involved here, but all of those ideas are baked in, making the stakes and the feeling of unrest palpable. Writer-director Sam Esmail manages a perfect pace between the human interactions and the world-ending bombast. Having to take one’s word and setting aside preconceived notions is sharply explored through the character dynamics without being reduced to a kumbaya or turning subtext into text. And something as tranquil as seeing a herd of deer is now made unsettling when their migration pattern is off. In the end, human connection is the only tool left to survive in a crisis, and the film finds a sort of cockeyed comfort in that.

Being locked up with a handful of characters wouldn’t work without the right performers. Julia Roberts excels as the prickly Amanda, handling dialogue that could have come off as stilted but makes sense with how her character has been established. Ethan Hawke is Roberts’ secondary, but he’s nevertheless solid as the more easygoing Clay. Mahershala Ali is the warm, well-spoken voice of reason the film requires as G.H. (the man can give a “haunting soliloquy” all day), and Myha’la completely holds her own as Ruth, even when putting some of her co-stars in their place. Of the two Sandford children, Charlie Evans nails his moments as an unforgiving big brother, and Farrah Mackenzie, in particular, makes a major impression as Rose, her freckled face often captured in mesmerizing close-up. With Rose (who is just about to watch the final episode of Friends before the internet gives out), it feels like the end of the world when she might not find out if Ross and Rachel wind up together. Lastly, Kevin Bacon, as a conspiracy-theorist neighbor, gives his one big scene everything it needs. 

Cinematographer Todd Campbell is working overtime here, as if the film is fluidly shot by an ever-present phantom. There’s such precision in nearly every frame, covering the geography of the Scott home and maybe even showing off a few times with an impossible shot. Campbell holds a shot during the beach scene of the incoming oil tanker and gets a 360-degree shot in the family’s car during a very tense moment, all to impressive effect. Mac Quayle’s Hitchcockian score also works in tandem for optimal tension, most effectively when mounting to what three different characters in different places are about to discover. 

The mystery of what is going on is never over- or under-explained, and where the film leaves us is bleak and disturbing but oddly hopeful in one person’s eyes. The ambiguity could frustrate those who need a button on their stories, but for a reinvigorated, thoughtful variation on a familiar tale, this is exactly how you do it. Making for one-third of a great triple bill with this year’s Knock at the Cabin and 1996’s The Trigger Effect, Leave the World Behind should be a lively conversation starter all on its own. 

Rating: 4.5/5

Leave the World Behind hits Netflix on December 8, 2023.

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