Directed by Sam Esmail
Year: 2023
Language: English
Shaun’s Score: 2.5/5 ★
Before Watching:
Look, we all have our preferences. Statistically, I’m prone to love anything that Radu Jude directs, or anything that stars a donkey. Manohla Dargis prefers a strong screenplay, while Alissa Wilkinson is wooed by artistic direction. Richard Brody, it seems, will like any movie that sucks. So, I almost can’t fault Barack Obama for liking anything that Higher Ground churns out, notwithstanding the conflict of interest so massive that even drone warfare couldn’t take it out.1 He recently shared a list2 of his favorite 2023 films, which notably features his own productions in the top 3 slots:
Leave the World Behind is a new apocalyptic thriller available on Netflix. We’re neck deep in the era of “Airbnb cinema,” featuring the likes of The Rental (2020) and Barbarian (2022), so it’s almost formulaic that when Amanda Sandford (Julia Roberts) books a beach house for an impromptu family weekend trip, sh*t will hit the fan. A self-identified misanthrope, Amanda takes her husband Clay (Ethan Hawke) and two children from their apartment in Park Slope (or as Clay claims, Sunset Park3) to the tropical paradise of Long Island. Where on Long Island can you still see the Manhattan skyline while being a multiple-hour drive outside Brooklyn? Apparently somewhere in Esmail’s imagination, but at least they have Vrbo. Anyway, an alarming incident at the beach is followed by a surprise visit from the house’s owner George (Mahershala Ali) and his daughter Ruth (Industry’s Myha’la), and house guests and hosts alike find themselves in an unknown apocalypse. Clay is amenable to grouping up as allies, but Amanda remains trepidatious—Pretty Woman inadvertently becomes Petty Woman.
The film fits neatly into the Shyamal-apocalyptica subgenre, managing to simulate large-scale confusion with patience, and a not unappreciated level of detail. Unfortunately, where the story slips is in its human believability—most of the dialogue is contrived beyond redemption (more like Erin Ad Hoc-ovich), with exchanges neatly arranged to set up the exact outcomes and revelations necessary for the screenplay to progress. For a nebulous and unnerving cataclysm, everyone manages to remain surprisingly calm and finds time to sit down for unprompted heart-to-hearts. What’s more, Esmail manages to turn a compelling subtext about race and the visage of liberalism into a ham-fisted logline that overpowers every interaction on screen. When your children are in danger, does it really make sense for you to find time for multiple discussions of “hey, we’re not so different”?
Upon leaving office, Barack Obama listed not doing more to bridge the racial divide among his greatest regrets after eight years in the White House (right after… you know, that other one). Perhaps that is what inspires the effort he puts into Higher Ground—even better works like American Factory (2019) are strung together by the message that we’d all be better off if we just look past the exterior. It’s only disappointing to me that Leave the World Behind cannot find a way to champion this message without leaving behind any shred of believability. I may not be Nate Silver, but the numbers show that the next stimulus package needs to reach Higher Ground’s writing budget. Thanks, Obama.
Leave the World Behind received a limited theatrical release in November 2023, and can now be streamed on Netflix.
After Watching:
The film currently has a 1.9 star rating out of 5 on Google, but that’s not just a measure of its quality. It appears that online reviews have mostly been coöpted by some copypasta, spamming thousands of 1 star ratings coupled with an identical rant about how Obama sucked at politics and now sucks at producing movies (see for yourself if you don’t believe me). Whether these are from MAGA trolls or Russian bots is anybody’s guess, but it goes to show you shouldn’t trust whatever you read on the internet.
Neither the movie nor its source material book4 provide a definitive explanation to what’s happening. Maybe it’s the Chinese, maybe it’s North Korea, or Iran… nobody knows. And yet, despite the dizzying disorientation, the film lacks a sense of alarm. Leave the World Behind is structured like a mystery, with (literal) timers counting down and breadcrumb trails leading us toward answers that never come. Yet, while many viewers have criticized the ending for being too abrupt, I actually found the final scene to be one of the most intriguing ideas of the whole film. What will survive the digital age if a cyberattack cripples the internet? What will humans cling to in search of post-apocalyptic meaning, entreating Rose to push past all other survival essentials?
Esmail argues that the answer is human stories recorded on physical media like DVDs, books, records, etc.; there’s even some foreshadowing to this conclusion earlier when Clay mentions his former student’s research on media’s status as “both an escape and a reflection.” Still, what a bizarre conclusion for Netflix to draw. Maybe after their password sharing crackdown is complete, we’ll all be reduced to huddled masses watching Friends boxsets in disaster bunkers. “We were on a break—but now I can’t stream Young Sheldon because we’re on different home Wi-Fi networks.” Yeah, no one told me life was gonna be this way…
It’s his studio.
At least it has a couple of good movies on it.
Which previously appeared on Obama’s summer reading list. He reads like a, uh, *long pause* book.