It's Christmas, Let's Leave the World Behind : 9 Movie Lines that Make Me Like It
There's Julia and Mahershala but it's what they say that make me love it.
So much has been said about Julia Robert’s latest movie. Reviews are mixed. As an unimportant regular Netflixer, let me share my experience with this flick.
Leave the World Behind is an apocalyptic thriller that begins with a family escaping the city with a much-needed R&R in an Airbnb outside city limits. Things begin to be tense when the weirdest of weirds befall their vacation. An oil tanker reaching the shore while they do their sunbathing, a herd of deers (in hundreds) that suddenly appears outside of the window, the son’s teeth falling off on their own for no apparent reason, planes crashing from the sky, uncontrollable Tesla cars, unmanned and crashing into each other in a highway, flamingos in the pool, the bombing of New York skyscrapers as seen from Long Island, the loss of internet service. Throughout these elements, there is a thunder of constant unease, a tension that does not leave you throughout the movie, a discomfort that makes you check if your phone has a cellular signal. The movie gives you nuggets of information on what has transpired to such a phenomenon but it never tells all. It leaves you to decipher the code. I try but I find nothing. Even with Mahershala explaining the possibilities, I did not get clear answers to what was happening. But I did feel what was happening in the movie. I feared for my family. I was on the edge of my seat, curious and scared. I was questioning. I was thinking how there was much information in the world but I really do not know anything after all.
I loved how the movie was a cinematic production but at the same time, it prevailed to move me in thought-provoking ways. Here are some lines in the movie that made me wonder and ponder. Just for these lines, I love this movie!
I saw all these people starting their day with such tenacity. Such verve. All in an effort to make something of themselves. Make something of our world.
With Julia looking out her apartment window, she watched people start their day with eagerness to be productive citizens of the world but the way she said was dripping with sarcasm ending her line with, “I f***cking hate people.”
She’s an adult, you cannot protect her just like you cannot protect me right now.
The adults in the movie shared a common desire —- to protect the children from the world’s menace. As time goes by, they realize no one is really protected.
The quiet is so noisy.
All the family wanted was a quiet getaway in nature’s arms. But when the planes started to fall off the skies, the kind of quiet in the air was the most deafening sound. It is the kind of silence that awakens the mind’s entry into the blaring horns of pessimistic questioning.
No one is in control. No one is pulling the strings.
With no one knowing fully what is happening, one realizes that when we just think everything is under control, nothing is. With technological advances, we think of precision, order and efficiency. The system is in place. Alas, nothing is really holding our world in place.
Why do you care so much about that show anyway?
They make me happy. I really need that right now, don’t you?
The TV series ‘Friends’ is such an endearing part of the film. To me, it was a warm blanket and a soft plushie for a child in a bleak, confusing space. Sort of one’s 'happy place.’
It’s the right thing to do.
And that right there is what’s going to f*ck us in the end.
This right here is the perennial question on whether doing good in the world will ever be worth it.
We f*ck every living thing on this planet over and think it’ll be fine because we use paper straws and order free-range chicken.
And as we go along with the system of speedy success and mindless living, we scramble to do good to make up for the bad that we do, thinking that it is enough. But we know for certain, it isn’t.
As awful as people might be, nothing is going to change the fact that we are all that we got.
Fortunately or unfortunately, we got each other.
Hope begins in the dark.
Towards the end, a montage with this quote appears forcing me to think that hope springs eternal.
And the movie ends with the iconic soundtrack of Friends, “I'll Be There for You,” by The Rembrandts.
I love that the movie was released between Thanksgiving and Christmas. In the screaming glory of positivity and hope, gratitude, and faith, Leave the World Behind punches one in the gut, prompting a questioning stance and shivers of worry. While the whole world anticipates Christmas with sparkling lights and hauls of useless gifts, the movie is the party pooper that makes us go home and think things over.
Maybe this Christmas, we can leave the world behind to remember the cradle of hope we are meant to see, overshadowed by trivial reality.
Sounds interesting though I seldom do movies any more.
Our Only World
This blue green orb our only world
A world we sorely need to share
All the land and all the love
All the pain and sorrow
So we are gathered here
To come together as one
On this precious home
our only world
.
Squall clouds are rolling
Bitter winds are hailimg
Rash kings are warring
And sirens are wailing
On this blue green orb
our only world.
Glaciers are melting
Countries are drying
Grain fields are roasting
And stomachs they are cryimg
On this precious home
our only world.
If we don't do something
We will be left with nothing
Wouldn't that be better
Better than nothing?
On
This blue green orb our only world
A world we sorely need to share
All the land and all the love
All the pain and sorrow
So we are gathered here
To come together as one
On this precious home
our only world.
Malcolm McKinney 10/17/23
Harmonia Mundi (We Gather Here Together) or "The Friendship Song". German 16th Century Chorale
https://youtu.be/JqtZsxkoPAE?si=Y6t9XS86q0afGaEH
I enjoyed this movie as well and really appreciated the ending.