Initial release date: November 22, 2023
Studios: Netflix/Higher Ground Productions
Tagline: There's No Going Back to Normal
Plot: A family vacation on Long Island is interrupted by two strangers bearing news of a blackout. As the threat grows, both families must decide how best to survive the potential crisis, all while grappling, with their own place in this collapsing world.
Cast
Julia Roberts - Amanda Sandford
Mahershala Ali - G.H. Sott
Ethan Hawke - Clay Sandford
Myha'la - Ruth Scott
Farrah Mackenzie - Rose Sandford
Charlie Evans - Archie Sandford
Kevin Bacon - Danny
Alexis Rae Farlenza - Danny's Daughter
Vanessa Aspillaga - Salvadore
Writer/director: Sam Esmail (Mr. Robot)
Rated R for language, some sexual content, drug use and brief bloody images (130 minutes)
Last week I took a look at the Netflix Original movie Leave the World Behind.
The premise of this film is rather intriguing. The film follows a few individuals who are trying to figure out what's going on with the current world events between the recent black out and weird events (which also includes a huge ship crashing into a beach).
Leave the World Behind does have a strong start. You can really feel the tension that's building and everyone is on edge. This Netflix movie can be really slow-moving at times which does help build the suspense to a certain extent. But it also really drags the film.
Not spoiling anything if you haven't seen it yet, but the ending can be quite divisive since it just abruptly ends. Now, sometimes an abrupt ending can sometimes work. And, for this film, it doesn't. It also leaves quite a few things unanswered as well - which in some cases can be okay.
Leave the World Behind can now be streamed on Netflix!
Here are some tidbits for Leave the World Behind!
The picture of the waves in the upper bedroom changes during the movie. The tide is rising. Same applies for the black and white picture in the living room which resembles a changing Rorschach picture.
G.H's neighbor's last name is Huxley, an homage to Aldous Huxley, who wrote Brave New World and other novels that painted pictures of dystopian futures where technology has become the thing that corrupt humanity and is used as a way to harm people.
Netflix won a bidding war for the rights to the novel by Rumaan Alam in July 2020. Denzel Washington was set to co-star but had to drop out and was replaced by Ali.
Leave the World Behind had its world premiere as the opening film of the AFI Fest on October 25, 2023, with the cast not attending due to the then on-going 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. It was released in limited theaters on November 22, before streaming on Netflix on December 8.
From December 4 - December 10, the film topped the streaming charts and was the No. 1 film on Netflix, with 41.7 million views.
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