The new, apocalyptic Netflix film, Leave the World Behind, stars Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, and Kevin Bacon, and was produced by Higher Ground productions – the company founded by Michelle and Barack Obama. Yes, former US president, Barack Obama.
The film is adapted from the 2020 novel of the same name by Rumaan Alam, which depicts a society in turmoil after its technical infrastructure – phones, TVs, communication – have begun to collapse. Specifically, the logline reads: “A family’s vacation is upended when two strangers arrive at night, seeking refuge from a cyberattack that grows more terrifying by the minute, forcing everyone to come to terms with their places in a collapsing world.”
Despite the film’s rapid ascent to the top of the Netflix pile, a certain Elon Musk didn’t seem thrilled about it. But why? Presumably, because in one scene, a swarm of Tesla cars have been programmed to block the road and to terminate anyone who attempts to pass by.
In response, Elon Musk wrote on X, “Teslas can charge from solar panels even if the world goes fully Mad Max and there is no more gasoline!”
An X user replied with: “This guy didn’t watch the movie. Elon should rewatch the movie.”
The film also boasts a 140 minutes running time, a trend that seems to be increasing in films lately due to some misplaced sense of artistry, recent examples of this being Beau is Afraid (3 hours), The Batman (3 hours), Killers of the Flower Moon (3h30), Babylon (3 hours), Oppenheimer (3 hours), and several others.
Several X users voiced their complaints, one lamenting: “This movie is waaay too long, don’t understand the hype behind it.”
Now although a long running time can absolutely be warranted, especially if your last name is Nolan or Scorsese, one can only assume this trend is due to the increasingly limited attention spans due to 60 second TikTok videos, and, as this is simply a sort of artistic retaliation from pompous filmmakers. As writer William Safire once said, “Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.” Same with long films. Unless you have the track record to prove your cinematic brilliance, spare us The Lord of The Rings trilogy length.
The ending has also divided users, with one X user complaining, “No, why did the Leave World Behind end like that?”
But because we are your friends and not your enemy, we won’t spoil the ending, and will simply implore you to watch it this weekend.
