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Leave The World Behind

*Spoiler Warning*

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Leave The World Behind, released just this year in 2023, is a movie directed by Sam Esmail. Produced by former president and first lady Barack and Michelle Obama, this slow placed thriller about a family stranded after a bizarre and dangerous series of events that play out throughout what we assume is The United States of America, depicts a fictional yet all to real possibility of the take down and genocide of a country.

Although throughout the movie, what truly is going on in the world or country is vastly speculation, but the film takes its time to leave its audience hints and clues of the truth. You only have to know how to pick them out, and as long as you read between the lines and approach it, knowing that everything on your screen has a purpose, it's easier to put together the missing pieces than you would think.

This film leaves you touched in a way you did not ask to be. It terrorizes you and preys on your biggest fears. Not only physical but psychological as well. Which makes it such a good thriller and film, but a message heard so clearly that the creaters almost laugh at you for not truly seeing what they are trying to do or tell you. All credits are due to the making of this film. It is wonderfully shot, beautifully colored, using sound to its advantage, and a story sewed so seamlessly together that it makes the slow paced drama something to be invested in. With all that being said, this movie is laughing at you.

Some of the cinematography is almost comedic. Certain holds on a frame, or certain cuts to characters. It leaves us with a dreary feeling because we know this isn't a comedy, but that language of film and sitcom is so embedded in us that we can't help but think there's a charm to it. Only, these same shots are used for darker moments as well and leave us blindsided to the horrors actually occurring. Not only that, but we are actually blind as an audience. We are stuck with two opposing families throughout the movie who are just as clueless as the viewer coming in for a watch. The writers did this purposefully and left several long monologues almost directly talking to the viewer. The first of which is Amanda's(Julia Roberts), who speaks to her husband in the opening scene, declaring she hates people.

The second round of lines directed toward the audience comes from the father Clay(Ethan Hawke), who is a professor. He describes a book he is currently working on with one of his students and states that it's about the idea that shows and television are both an escape from reality as well as a reflection of our reality, and that despite the paradox in that, the student explains why it is possible to have both at the same time. With the character speaking this, we can conclude as an audience when we sit down to watch this movie for mere entertainment, we are watching a reflection of ourselves simultaneously. The film is acting as a mirror in what feels like a mocking way. Characters are put there as a reflection of us. A kind but cowardly dad, an angry complainer of a mother, a creepy teenage boy, and a Friends obsessed daughter who is spoiled and complains when she can't have her iPad to entertain her. Despite the reality and seriousness of what's going on. All of them wrapped up in their own world in a self-centered type of way. We see the seeds of truth in these characters, and we see how the writers view us as an audience. We are overly reliant on technology and caught up in our own little worlds. Spoiled by the mass produced luxuries of the first world and destined to fall apart the second we lose those luxuries.

The second set of characters we are given to follow are G.H.(Mahershala Ali) and his daughter Ruth(Myha'la Herrold). G.H. is the sound of reason and speculation on what truly is going on in the world, and then the superstitious daughter who urges us to take our paranoia seriously. It is G.H.'s monologues that leave you horrified to your core. G.H. acts as the true voice throughout the film seeing as he works with extremely powerful people with an exorbant amount of money. It is his character that gives us glimpses of what is occurring and lets the audience know what the true purpose of this film is. A message and a warning.