LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND is an excellently crafted, low-maintenance thriller, perfect for those moments when we need entertainment while running on two cylinders mentally. Furthermore, it offers some pointers on riding out societal collapse in class and comfort — particularly useful in this day and age.
The film has healthy doses of creepy weirdness, punctuated by great camera work and a slick visual style entirely in keeping with the antiseptically luxurious lifestyle of its protagonists, including (but not limited to) megastars Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke and Mahershala Ali.
Aspirational voyeurism has always been one of the reasons people flock to the cinema. Leave The World Behind is no exception, cooking up its own unique blend of 'luxorealism' — if things really did finally fall apart in western society, this is the kind of dishevelment you'd imagine the real Roberts, Hawke and Ali having to endure.
But the film is a fun watch for the whole family, doubling up as a glitzy Hollywood apocalyptic handbook for the 1% who left the world behind a long time ago.