By Steve Crum

Sam Esmail’s Leave the World Behind can be described as comfortably being in the Jordan Peele/M. Night Shyamalan filmmaking genre. Director/Writer Esmail has fashioned an end-of-the-world storyline that keeps pounding our fears throughout its 140 minutes. 

If only the story’s resolution was not so ambiguous. 

Esmail’s writing and directing works include Comet and the TV series Mr. Robot. As such, similar themes of technology and alienation are central to Leave the World Behind. No one could be as alienated as Julia Roberts’ alpha-type wife and mom Amanda Sanford. Married with kids to the meek Clay (Ethan Hawke in a fascinating, uncharacteristic role), it is Amanda who plans their weekend vacation on Long Island. So they drive from NYC to an upscale, private home in a pretty remote area amongst trees and forrest animals. 

Realizing Amanda and Clay’s extreme personalities is vital the story since interaction (and lack thereof) makes Leave the World Behind work so well. That includes their children, teenager Archie (Charlie Evans) and middle schooler Rose (Farrah Mackenzie). 

Conflicts escalate when the owner of the house, G. H. Scott (Mahershala Ali), and his teen daughter Ruth (Myha’la), appear at the door the very first evening. A blackout has occurred, and they are unable to travel. Now they want their house back. Add the fact that the two families had never met.

Mix in strange occurrences such as no phone, radio or TV connections; racial prejudice (the owner and his daughter are Black); and deer and the like are gathering near the house. There are other other off-kilter happenings as well. What about those red leaflets dropping out of the sky? The survivalist neighbor Danny, ominously portrayed by Kevin Bacon? 

And all those driverless cars nearby, blocking the entrance to the nearby town? Consider that jarring sequence as one of the cleverest ever seen in a movie. I did a triple take. 

More baffling threats involve all six central characters, and Director Esmail handles all very well. It becomes a character study of acceptance. After all, Leave the World Behind is touted as an “apocalyptic psychological thriller.” 

Near movie’s end, the spotlight is on Rose as she explores a nearby abandoned home in which she finds solace. 

It is the most poignant and telling part of the film. 

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GRADE on an A-F Scale: B+