Leave the World Behind

Concentrated building of apocalyptic tension that employs clever work with perspective reminiscent of Spielberg’s War of the Worlds (including the way Esmail microdoses the disaster). In emotional terms, we find ourselves between the brightest moments of Shyamalan, Peele and the masterful Take Shelter, but transposed from the working class to New York’s upper middle class. In my opinion, Leave the World Behind is a much more accurate depiction of the catastrophic zeitgeist than all of those hyped-up eco-anti-capitalist satires. It works primarily as a film and some of the statements from the mouths of the believable characters directed against the system and society come off better than in the case of pompous puppet shows. Great work with the camera trajectories, precise actors (Mahershala Ali winner by KO), excellent sound design... If not for a few tonal stumbles, this would be without doubt one of the best disaster films of recent years. (2023-12-20)

This is how I hoped to like Don't Look Up, but I didn't. Not even close. Leave the World Behind is a much more mysterious, clever, funny, better made and written film that actually accurately describes my feelings about the world today. Like Julia Roberts’s monologue in the shack. (2023-12-10)

Sam Esmail serves up a slow platter of nervs with no easy answers. It will annoy everyone, but I always liked these questions and stories. A depressing drama with a satirical patina. The three-pronged attack is a very interesting theme. You'd think Europe would be entering the first phase, so good luck with that. A formally brilliant exercise, with great performances. Though they might as well have left the drunken dancing Julia Roberts on the cutting room floor. Since Netflix likes it long. P.S: A must for fans of Friends and Matthew Perry's death as a thoughtful marketing ploy? A joke worthy of Chandler. (2023-12-09)

A more thoughtful, tense and overall more minimalist version of Civil War with a gradually escalating atmosphere in the style of Take Shelter. Technically outstanding. Great cinematography and editing. Superb acting, a shame some elements were left unexplained and perhaps the conclusion was too rushed given the carefully constructed build up to the finale. (2024-05-31)

No Bruce drilling into asteroids, Aaron drilling to the core, and Roland twisting all kinds of cataclysms. The era of relatively happy endings is over; a more personal approach to preparing for the inevitable is taking over, dealing with dark prospects, and retreating into the underground around an image with the inscription "Hope begins in the dark." Should I be impressed by the camera moving through floors, walls, and holes in the tin roof of a forest cabin, or the neurotic music feeding the fear of an unknown danger? Not really. What struck me the most was the realization that when the crisis comes, Apple Pay and soy lattes will have zero value compared to a shotgun in the hands of a farmer with a shabby cap, and we, looking from above, will need to dismount from that horse quickly. I resonate with the plotline about Friends. I’d also like to feel good and return to times that seem as if they never existed. (2023-12-12)