Rating of
3/4
The End is Near... and Deer
Chris Kavan - wrote on 12/13/23
The premise of Leave the World Behind is simple - the downfall of a modern nation via the loss of technology. Cut off the internet, television, electricity and watch as the world burns. Also, some animals do weird things too.
The film follows the Sanford family - Amanda (Julia Roberts), Clay (Ethan Hawke), and teens Archie (Charlie Evans) and Rose (Farrah Mackenzie) as they decide to take a vacation from the big city and hit the beach after renting a swanky house in the woods. When an oil tanker runs aground on the beach, it's the first major sign something is happening. Soon phones, tablets and the TV stop working - aside from a few short bits of about hackers and nation-wide attacks. That night, the owners of their house, G.H. Scott (Mahershala Ali) and his daughter Ruth (Myha'la) show up and after a tense meeting, are allowed to stay.
The heart of the film isn't the dealing with the fallout - but rather how people treat each other. Roberts is a top-shelf Karen-type, while Clay is almost too trusting. Ali weathers the storm - but even his character isn't forward with the whole truth. Still, this crew manages to come together as things devolve. It's also a reflection of just how much we rely on technology - from Clay unable to navigate the road without a handy GPS to Rose obsessing over not being able to watch the final episode of Friends - and even a fun bit about self-driving Tesla's wrecking havoc - it's both telling and quite horrifying just how easy it would be to send us over the edge.
Besides our main cast, Kevin Bacon is also along as your quintessential doomsday guy - stocking up on supplies and guns but not much on trust. One memorable scene late in the film shows how easy is also is to divide us - and if the lack of technology doesn't kill us, our fellow man probably will.
A lot of people have complained about the lack of explanation and the sudden ending but I think the film leaves you in the dark for a reason. The animal thing is weird, the sonic attacks are strange, the random leaflets are, well, random - but when you see the city from afar in full-on melt down - you know whatever is going on is working and that's all you need to know.
At the end, while some of the characters certainly desplay questionable (and cringy) actions, overall, Sam Esmail delivers a modern-day apocalypse that seems all too plausible, which is what makes it so effective in my mind.
