Le Monde après nous

Netflix, après son succès d'il y a deux ans avec Don't Look Up, propose à nouveau, juste avant la fin de l'année, une satire apocalyptique à la fois comique et glaçante. Si cette tendance se maintient tous les deux ans, je serai plutôt content, même si j'ai plus de réserves cette fois-ci. Le casting est bon, tout comme l’excellente montée de l’ambiance. Il est admirable que Sam Esmail réussisse à maintenir le spectateur en haleine pendant 140 minutes, mais le problème survient dans le final, qui se borne à expliquer si littéralement à l'audience l'action et le message du film que même un idiot analphabète pourrait comprendre. De plus, c'est associé à des personnages dont le comportement caricatural et la communication forcée et artificielle sur les problèmes de base servent le propos du film, mais semblent artificiels et un peu agaçants. Dommage. Par contre, un pouce en l'air pour la scène finale qui souligne l'importance de posséder des supports physiques malgré la diffusion sur Netflix. Le comble ! (20/12/2023)

Un film dans la même veine que Don’t Look Up et White Noise de Netflix. Tout aussi bien ciblé, mais ratant son coup, comme on pouvait s’y attendre. Des dialogues intelligents avec quelques réflexions existentielles, mais aucune véritable révélation. Des scènes de tension croissante qui renforcent la dramaturgie du film, mais qui ne font à chaque fois que suggérer ce qui peut se passer « là-bas au dehors ». Des cerfs numériques pour une touche de mysticisme, mais sans ancrage significatif dans la structure de l’intrigue. La cinématographie élégante et inventive séduit, mais elle n’atteint pas le niveau de créativité audacieuse d’un Jordan Peel. Quant à l’aspect conversationnel, il ne fait qu’essayer de faire de la sociologie au niveau d’un scénario européen ou asiatique. Malgré tout, le film est divertissant et se laisse regarder avec plaisir. Et je comprends aussi que certains puissent y voir une contribution alternative intéressante au genre du film catastrophe. Car c’est exactement de cette façon que cela pourrait se passer. (13/12/2023)

Concentrated building of apocalyptic tension that employs clever work with perspective reminiscent of Spielberg’s War of the Worlds (including the way Esmail microdoses the disaster). In emotional terms, we find ourselves between the brightest moments of Shyamalan, Peele and the masterful Take Shelter, but transposed from the working class to New York’s upper middle class. In my opinion, Leave the World Behind is a much more accurate depiction of the catastrophic zeitgeist than all of those hyped-up eco-anti-capitalist satires. It works primarily as a film and some of the statements from the mouths of the believable characters directed against the system and society come off better than in the case of pompous puppet shows. Great work with the camera trajectories, precise actors (Mahershala Ali winner by KO), excellent sound design... If not for a few tonal stumbles, this would be without doubt one of the best disaster films of recent years. (20/12/2023)

Sam Esmail, the creator of the praised series Mr. Robot, directs an apocalyptic psychological thriller about a cyber attack for Netflix, with a decent cast and definitely higher potential. But Esmail and Netflix deserve a thumbs up, as there can never be enough good mystery conspiracy thrillers. Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Mahershala Ali, and even Kevin Bacon in a smaller role make a for a good ensemble cast, so even though it is mainly a conversational drama-thriller with a longer running time than healthy, the film is fortunately not boring. (Of course, it depends on the individual.) I liked the mysterious atmosphere that accompanies the whole film, the division into chapters, and the craftsmanship. The few apocalyptic shots are very nice (although they could have been longer and there could have been more of them). There are plenty of questions and few answers, which wouldn't be a problem if the film didn't have a strange ending where you expect a proper twist and gets that instead. I always have the feeling that when filmmakers are unsure how to end the film and are afraid they don't have a well-thought-out twist, they end it randomly like this, but this doesn't apply in this case. I'm not completely thrilled about it, I expected a bigger mindfuck experience, but compared to the latest Shyamalan, it's definitely a class better. Although there were a few things that bothered me, overall I have no problem with it, and the film receives a weaker 4 stars from me. However, the idea is definitely terrifying. 7/10. (12/12/2023)

Praise for the first four chapters: It's as if elements from the best disaster flicks of the last three decades came together. The suspicion of something dangerous, like in Take Shelter, and the view of a global catastrophe through the microcosm of ordinary people who have no influence on the situation, like in Spielberg's War of the Worlds. Sam Esmail builds the tension of each scene fantastically (I'll remember the tanker for a long time), with clever camera rides that make it all look very cinematic – I couldn't count the iconic scenes with the fingers on one hand. The actors are all man great, except for the young boy, and Mahershala Ali gives it his best performance. With him, all it takes is one scene of him telling his ominous tale to Juliet over wine and it gives you the chills of a first-rate horror film. The daughter's adoration of Friends and her main concern for how the last episode turned out, even though everything is going to shit around her in real life, is such an apt satirical dig at the need of some shallow-minded individuals for whom even the slightest banality is enough to fulfill life. Unfortunately, it loses it's previous mojo in the last instructional chapter. The mystery evaporates and its explanation is like something out of a Trumpist paranoid pamphlet about how the whole world is against the US and that the truth is in the hands of the preppers who have had their packs of basic necessities ready for years, or who have thrown their entire savings into an underground bunker. I think that on Judgment Day I’ll be taking a quiet nap :o) (05/01/2024)