Starring Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, Kevin Bacon

Written & Directed by Sam Esmail

In Cinemas now, streaming on Netflix from December 8th

When Amanda and Clay escape the city for an impromptu vacation with their teenage kids, they run into problems with their holiday rental, which shouldn’t be the end of the world…

If my attempt to explain the premise of Sam Esmail’s new thriller Leave the World Behind seems a bit vague, it’s because – and trust me on this – the less you know about this gripping and constantly surprising movie the better. For some reason it had slipped under my radar, so when it started, and I saw Barack and Michelle Obama listed as executive producers, I thought for about half an hour that I was watching an edgy, ambiguous, and challenging home invasion flick, asking uncomfortable questions about race, class and liberal America.

With an A-list cast headed up by Julia Roberts giving a landmark and professionally bold performance, I’d have quite happily watched a whole 90 minutes of that movie, but just like Tod Campbell’s remarkable, serpentine cinematography, Leave the World Behind spends the next hour and a half turning all your expectations upside down… literally.

When Mahershala Ali, also top form (reminding me just a little bit of one of the executive producers), arrives in the middle of the night with his daughter (Myha’la Herrold) they claim that they are seeking refuge from a mysterious comms blackout. And that’s it! That’s all I’m going to say because it’s an exquisitely plotted film which deals with every question I silently asked of it at each narrative handbrake turn.

I think what distinguishes the way this story is told is that even when it seems to veer off the chicane, it doesn’t do so randomly. Everything does fit together and the loose ends are tied up meticulously. When a new conceptual theme is added (at one point there are shades of folk horror and Twelve Monkeys) it is never to the detriment of anything that has gone before. That original social commentary is never forgotten. Ideas add to ideas to make the movie greater than the sum of its parts. And despite the darkness and complexity of the narrative, there is an undercurrent of satirical commentary which had me laughing out loud (when I wasn’t gripping my arm rests), especially when it comes to self-driving Teslas.

I imagine some might find a few of the film’s philosophical ruminations a little theatrical, but that didn’t bother me because when you’ve got Ethan Hawke and Kevin Bacon (at his most Kevin Bacon) delivering these lines like their lives depend on it, I for one am happy to listen. The content is intelligent and well written and worth listening to. There were moments when I had the unnerving sense that the 44th President of the United States was talking directly to me and sharing the portentous benefits of his wisdom. I mean, if that’s not a good enough reason to pay attention, I don’t know what is.

The supporting cast are also great, with Farrah Mackenzie as the Sandfords’ 13-year-old daughter Rose, anchoring the movie as its beating, fallible human heart… not to mention giving the film’s conclusion a wonderful terminal flourish.

Verdict: For my sins, in my six-and-a-bit decades, I’ve seen (and reviewed) a lot – ! – of dramas and movies that explore humankind’s preoccupation with the apocalypse. Leave the World Behind is in my top three, and certainly the best I’ve seen in many years. You could wait until it streams but find it in a cinema if you possibly can. 10/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com