Leave the World Behind on Netflix

Saw it and it was ok. The ending was kind of dumb. Also, can't believe that they would have had electricity for that long after. Cyber attack would take the grid down almost immediately. The ship beaching was a little weird also.

 

I enjoyed how the went away from the normal formula of a catastrophe movie. Instead of detailed emphasis on the disaster itself, the focus was on the characters, how people in 2023 interact with each other, and how we use entertainment to "numb the pain".

 

It does a great job of building tension, but the ending was highly unsatisfying. Mr Robot’s 1st season was fantastic, but it became unwatchable soon after.

 

The stuff with the animals was incoherent to me, like why are the deer so weird if it was tech hackers? Maybe you arent supposed to think about it too much, or it was just to make things more mysterious and inconclusive.

 

I agree with this, in another movie the scene with Kevin Bacon might have gone a little differently

 

Yeah, and why did the little girl wander off anyway. Like she was possessed or something. And found a house that had power to watch Friends.

BTW, this thread is full of spoilers for people that haven't watched it.

 

Spoiler alert! Not much happens.

 

well when they were in that shed she saw the house so decided to check it out later

 

Movies pretty much don't worry about plausibility anymore, if they ever did. But it's getting worse and I guess either they don't care or they think their audience is too dumb to question it. The dumbest movie I've seen in the last few years was Tenet. Early in that movie, it created rules for traveling backwards in time, and for the rest of the movie, it violates those rules over and over. And apparently few cared. Not a fan of Nolan at all.

 

I'm ok with that if it works, but this definitely reeks of having a lot of money and thinking "wouldn't it be cool if we did this." The animals really have no bearing on the story at all. Tenet was definitely in that category too, just cool ideas pieced together that make no sense as a whole.

 

The book was pretty terrible. I should have put it down after the full page description of their groceries. Same blank ending.

 

I've read multiple things about the involvement of the Obamas. Here is one.

President Obama’s Involvement In ‘Leave The World Behind’ Explained

Barack and Michelle Obama (along with Tonia Davis, Daniel M. Stillman, and Nick Krishnamurthy) are credited as executive producers for Leave the World Behind. Since founding their production company Higher Ground Productions, in 2018, the Obamas have also produced projects like Michael Keaton’s Worth and Kevin Hart’s Fatherhood.

In a recent interview with Collider, Esmail explained how exactly the Obamas shaped the current version of Leave The World Behind. (The popular book also made it on the President’s coveted reading list.)

“Because President Obama is such a movie lover, he really focused his notes on trying to cinematically portray what was in the book in a really interesting way. The book was on his reading list, it’s one of his favorites, and he really wanted to do justice by the book and this theme about mistrust and this being a cautionary tale about what could happen if we don’t have that community or bond that holds us together,” the director explained. “So he really gave notes with regards to character, empathy, and also the disaster elements. It was really across the board. And again, it was all in pursuit of making it into a good movie. That was his main focus.”

 

Oh, I didn't mean to suggest that he was hyping it for personal reasons, but definitely not surprised to see it on his list either. I personally thought it was really good.

 

I liked the cinematography quite a bit. I was entertained but found the ending to be lazy/stupid.

 

Yeah, super cool technical points, sorta seems like he has something to say, then just goes until it dies a natural, uneventful death.

That dance scene was one of the cringier things I have endured in a while. And that goofy exchange about Aaron Sorkin. Whaaaa???

You would think this was some sort of Q crowdsourcing, not Obama.

In case you aren’t good at noticing when you are being hit with a hammer, the script Perry Masons the “takeaways.” Super lib Karen is cartoonishly racist, super lib professor is so pathetic that he actually has a line of dialog saying so, the son tells the sister that perhaps she is hooked on trivial social constructs, he has to go “next level” on his teen horniness, Racist Karen redeems herself by becoming White Savior, the only person with a clue is the hillbilly prepper, they mention “cabal” only to later clarify there is no one in control, FEAR EVERYTHING!!

It feels like possibly the craftiest work of satire ever, because it’s as if it was spit out by a new, second tier AI during the strike and then presents itself as exactly Not That. Because if real people did that, well, that isn’t a strong argument against AI.

 

Interesting. Didn't remember you posted this but just started Mr. Robot last night and few episodes in. Someone I asked about it said the same thing you did - big fall off after first season.