One can pretty easily sense the Obamas’ intervention in the Netflix film Leave the World Behind, yet it’s an enjoyable thriller despite this.  Barrack and Michelle are listed as executive producers on the film, which was released by their production company, Higher Ground. Given the Obamas’ involvement, the political implications become even more pronounced. Some have even alleged that the film has reverse racism in it.  The following analysis adds a little context. Ultimately, the film has A-list actors and some new faces that deliver a decent film with lots of suspense. 

Characters

Julia Roberts plays Amanda, an advertising Brooklynite married to Ethan Hawke’s Clay.  Though she has a middle class lifestyle, Roberts portrays a working class demeanor.  She is meant to read as narrow-minded, only to have a comeupance in an Obama-like rendering of white guilt and black victimhood.  Though this dynamic is sanctimonious and not particularly realistic, Roberts still carries it off just because she’s an interesting actress.  With that said, just like G.H. is not a believable character, I doubt that a white woman who works in marketing and lives in Brooklyn would express such politically incorrect sentiments as does Amanda. Rather, she would be falling all over herself to ingratiate herself towards G.H., a well put-together African American man. 

Amanda feels that she is in possession of some profound knowledge about “How awful we really are,” or as she says in the film’s opening: 

“I fucking hate people.” 

This dark and secret truth she learned because she works in marketing. So Julia Roberts finds herself playing somewhat of a dark, bitter character, which again, she pulls off well.

George or G.H. Scott, is a flawless character which has something to do with “representation,” yet he hardly comes off like a real person.  He’s perfectly moral and altruistic. He’s so sophisticated that at one point in the film, he says something like, “I’m very sophisticated.”  When we’re introduced to this character, he’s literally wearing a tuxedo. He just got back from the symphony, of course.  Let’s chalk it up to wokeness that this character is above reproach, whereas everyone else has these shitty character defects, they’re racist, such as the case with Amanda, or just incompetent and emasculated like Clay (in fact, Ethan Hawke is often not allowed to have balls in many of his roles for some reason). So G.H. is the one afforded knowledge and wisdom, and in fact, according to an interview that the author of the novel on which the film is based, G.H. as originally conceived didn’t give such a long-winded explanation of events. Indeed, this part of the film drags, and it seems mostly there to puff up the ego of G.H., for identity politics reasons.  In other words, G.H. is there to puff up the self-esteem of viewers who might identify with him.

Amanda’s husband Clay, on the other hand, comes off with a certain naive affability which Hawke carries off well. Then again, he’s also portrayed as weak. His wife drives the car while he’s in the passenger seat for some reason.  When they can’t figure out the Wi-Fi at the vacation house, he meekly defers to her: 

“You are the tech-wiz, not I.”

As though it’s men who typically don’t have competence with technology. Clay is supposed to be a college professor but he is never given any lines or action that display a correspondingly high intellect, besides at one point referencing “a piece in the Atlantic” that he read, and an absurd reference to “Meso-American mythology.”  He’s educated in the way that a leftist might conceive of “being educated.”  At any rate, given the casting and the identity politics at play, every bit of intelligence and insight naturally comes from G.H. 

Clay and Amanda’s daughter, meanwhile, is a fey child of thirteen fixated on the show “Friends” for some god-awful reason, which she has been streaming on her phone. Her mom explains that there was once something called “re-runs” on television.  

Synopsis 

While on vacation at a luxurious home in a hamlet on Long Island, things start going haywire for Clay and Amanda and their two children. The first sign is a sketchy internet, then an oil-tanker washing up on a beach where they’re sunbathing.  

From there, the purported owners of their air-b and b show up in the middle of the night.  That the father and daughter duo are black tends to complicate the situation, because Amanda doesn’t fully believe that they are the owners of the home.  Furthermore, George is almost deliberately not to the point in explaining that he is the owner of the home, which sets up a Henry Luis Gates type situation.  Why not just state outright, “Hey, we rented you this house, my name is George”?  

To be fair to Amanda, that is the kind of thing you would want to verify.  We’re supposed to cringe when Amanda expresses her skepticism.  But if she were too credulous, that could have also wound up badly–like a home invasion.  In the real world, taking G.H.’s word for his good intentions would more likely than not prove to be her misfortune.  However, in Obama’s imaginary world, this is a baseline test of character. The film cleverly teases this out so that one is not quite sure it is G.H.’s house, and in this way Leave the World Behind is a suspenseful flick. It is as if to say, “Are you, viewer, also going to make racist assumptions?  Or do you accept that this is the rightful house of G.H. and his daughter Ruth?” 

Ultimately, Amanda asks for his ID, and we’re supposed to cringe. But she explains: 

“It’s a fair ask.  You’re a stranger showing up in the middle of the night, and my kids are upstairs.”

That he left his ID in his jacket, which is supposedly still checked at the symphony, seems a bit suspicious.  

G.H’s daughter Ruth is a pretty little number who takes an instant disliking to the family renting their home.  She simultaneously flirts with Clay, and then in the next breath accusing him of wanting to “fuck” her in a conversation with his father.  Yet if Clay does want to have sex with her (which he presumably does), it is she who introduced the topic when she asks Clay: 

“Have you ever fucked one of your students?” 

At any rate, every thriller should have a sexy vixen, and Myha’la Herrold provides some eye candy. 

The mysterious nationwide disaster situation gets worse as planes fall from the sky and G.H. discovers dead bodies on the beach. Clay explores the town and finds it deserted, except for a stranded Spanish-speaking Hispanic lady whom he abandons on the highway, mostly for his inability to understand what she wants (for the record, she wanted to return to her house, according to my translation). 

Perhaps the most villainous character is Kevin Bacon’s Danny, a contractor who had previously worked on G.H’s house. We’re introduced to Danny loading his truck with supplies outside a grocery store, foreshadowing events, and one is struck by his out-of-pocket hostility as he takes paranoid umbrage to Amanda viewing him and then giving him an apologetic smile.  Later, Danny refuses to help Clay’s son until he’s held at gunpoint, at which point he reluctantly accepts cash in exchange for some medicine. In front of an American flag hanging above his porch, which is meant to that Danny is a working class white, bad conservative, he explains that the attack must have been the Koreans, or the Chinese: 

“We’ve made a lot of enemies in the world.” 

Gaslighting? 

We can look at real-life disasters that have happened recently in the U.S. and see how they played out in comparison to the imagined world of Leave the World Behind. Would the Kevin Bacon character be the guy causing havoc and pulling guns on people? Is it the working class guy with the American flag who will act out in an anti-social manner? Furthermore, Danny is referred to as a “conspiracy theorist” in a synopsis at Variety.  “Conspiracy theorist” is a conservative-coded pejorative these days, so we see the angle.  But Danny doesn’t really monger any conspiracies in the film, other than attributed the blame for the attack to Korea (meaning presumably North Korea) and China. Yet he gives evidence, or at least reasons, as to why he believes this.  Then he’s correct that it’s actually Iran, which is the more proper enemy of the American deep-state. 

For one, look at Katrina and the consequent looting in New Orleans. That was reality, rather than the woke gaslighting we receive in Leave the World Behind. One suspects that Obama is behind this dishonest portrayal because it is how he prefers to see the country. 

In fact, the villains in Leave the World Behind are explicitly identified as white people, at least through the words of the daughter: 

“If the world does fall apart, you can’t just dole out your trust to anyone, especially white people.” 

Does this mean that the film itself is racist–against White people?  It may be a little out of context as people discuss this scene online.  That’s just one character’s statement, and it isn’t necessarily meant as the message of the movie. It could be that this is mean as an example of racism parallel Amanda’s subtle racism against black people. Probably in the mind of the author of the book on which the film is based, Rumaan Alam, the message of the film is one of unity. It’s just that the antagonists are backwards whites who are getting in the way of this unity.  (Alam also served as executive producer of the film).

In fact, director Sam Esmail said that, consistent with Barrack Obama’s vision, the film is “a cautionary tale about what could happen if we don’t have that community or bond that holds us together.” He further downplayed Obama’s involvement, noting that the script had already been written by the time they started receiving his feedback.

Grade: B+

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