Netflix has seen its share of A-list talent starring in its original movies this year, with Adam Sandler, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Lopez, Natalie Portman and more going straight to streaming with some of their latest projects. Now Julia Roberts will team up with a number of other big names for Leave the World Behind, a movie from Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground. The movie is set for release December 8 on the streamer, and it’s been racking up quite a bit of positive feedback from the critics.
Julia Roberts stars as Amanda Sandford, whose family finds itself in unsettling circumstances on vacation when Mahershala Ali’s G.H. Scott shows up at the door claiming to be the owner of the rental home. The all-star cast also includes Ethan Hawke, Myha'la and Kevin Bacon, so let’s see what the critics are saying, starting with Constance Grady of Vox. The critic rates the 2023 Netflix movie schedule entry 3.5 out of 5, praising writer/director/producer Sam Esmail as well as Mahershala Ali — in a role originally intended for Denzel Washington — who makes a meal out of the role. Grady continues:
Esmail’s characters are blinded by a different kind of bourgeois comfort food, one that only comes into focus in the film’s final, biting, and deeply satisfying sequence. It’s a moment that feels aimed directly at the pieties of the streaming entertainment moment, as shows like WandaVision endlessly assure us that bad TV serves something fundamental to the human soul. In Esmail’s hands, the moment is so sharp-edged you might gasp to see it in a Netflix streaming original.
Tom Gliatto of People says it’s a suspenseful film that plots its course from tiny aggressions to colossal ones, with tension strong enough to snap a pencil. Gliatto continues:
Leave the World Behind is a polished, subtle tale of terror (in many forms), although the sense of an unstated, mysterious connection between all these malevolences — from Amanda’s opening ‘f–-- you’ to the final revelation of the cataclysm's likely cause — doesn’t have the resonance it ought to. You should be trying to puzzle out what it all can possibly mean. But after awhile you stop asking and just wait for the next expertly administered jolt.
Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gives Leave the World Behind 3.5 out of 4 stars, praising the sharp pacing, wonderful ensemble cast and near-perfect payoff. Roeper writes:
Adapting the 2020 novel of the same name by Rumaan Alam, the talented Esmail, who previously worked with Roberts on the TV series Homecoming and Gaslit, has fashioned a tense, occasionally darkly funny but ultimately sobering slow-build drama with echoes of everything from a certain classic episode of The Twilight Zone to the 1983 film Testament and the 2022 films Gone in the Night and Alone Together. It’s the kind of movie where you keep thinking about what YOU would do in the situations presented to the main characters, as life as they know it seems to be unraveling in permanent fashion.
Carla Renata of The Curvy Critic calls the movie “spectacularly smart,” and one that will leave audiences stressed out and longing for hope. Its cast is a “pure chemistry fire of riches,” with each actor bringing specificity and authenticity to their character. The critic says of this 2023 new movie release:
Esmail sets up the cinematic circumstances perfectly with a ominous soundtrack swirling around images of space. Giving a Hitchcock vibe, and gorgeous shot, the film is laden with circular overhead shots illustrating the beauty of a peaceful upstate New York, while setting its audience up for a seismic shift of epic proportions. [Esmail]’s screenplay is witty and razor sharp while straddling the line of comedy and suspenseful drama making this a unique and exciting cinematic experience.
Kristen Lopez of The Wrap calls the apocalypse film a “two-hour descent into chaos,” warning that audiences will be compelled yet utterly terrified. While Julia Roberts and Myha’la are “amazing” to watch play off of each other, this critic agrees with others who say Mahershala Ali steals the show. Lopez concludes:
Leave the World Behind enters the stage as one of the year’s best and no doubt will spark massive amounts of conversation. It’s cast helps take viewers on a journey that, while they’ll feel the length, they’ll be so compelled by what’s happening it won’t even matter. Just don’t expect to sleep easy after seeing it.
Leave the World Behind has already compiled impressive scores on Rotten Tomatoes, with 39 critics cumulatively rating it 79% Fresh, and the audience score even higher at 89%, though that’s also from fewer than 50 ratings. We’ll have to see how audiences continue to receive the movie when it becomes available to stream with a Netflix subscription on Friday, December 8. In the meantime, check out what else is new and coming soon to Netflix.
