We loved this slow-burn Netflix original film – produced by the Obamas, of all people – about an unspecified disruption to life as we know it. A star-studded cast including Ethan Hawke, Julia Roberts, and two-time Academy Award-winner Mahershala Ali ushers in the potential apocalypse as a mysterious event throws off a family’s weekend getaway in upstate New York.
And as if that weren’t enough, we were joined by a special guest, Craig’s sister, Kristin, to discuss the rampant symbolism that director Sam Esmail managed to cram into this 140 minute nail-biter.
In fact, there was so much to unpack here that we continued the discussion in a freakin’ 40-minute minisode, exclusively for our Patrons. You can catch a sneak-peek of THAT by clicking here. 2024 is off to a rollicking start, eh?
Leave The World Behind (2023)
Episode 376, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw
Todd: Hello and welcome to another episode of Two Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd.
Craig: I’m Craig.
Todd: Well, it is still the new year, this is our second episode of the new year, and we just In fact, I think this one just came out, what, weeks ago? Something like that? This is a new movie on Netflix that a lot of people have been talking about.
It’s called Leave the World Behind. It’s directed by Sam Esmail. We were just talking before the recording about how it was, for some reason, impossible for us. To remember the title of this movie. We are joined today, once again, by Craig’s sister, Kristen. Say hello to the people, Kristen. Hey, it’s good to be back.
Whose idea was this?
Craig: Well, I guess it was kind of Kristen’s. It’s just funny that you said people are talking about it because Kristen has been trying to get me to watch this movie for a week. She’s like, have you watched it yet? Have you watched it yet? Yeah. Yeah. Cause I want to talk about it. And, uh, I said, well, I mean, it sounds interesting.
She’s like, you could do. The podcast. You could do it for the podcast. Oh, I was like, well, is is it horror? And, and I said,
Kristen: I don’t know. .
Craig: kind of. So she like, real quick, I md beat it. And indeed it is marked as, uh, what is it? It’s not just horror.
Kristen: It’s like it’s said horror drama, horror drama, horror,
Todd: horror, drama.
That’s right, uh, Wikipedia calls it an American Apocalyptic Psychological Thriller film. I suppose. I think it qualifies. We’ve done other movies like this before, so. I
Craig: think it definitely qualifies, if for no other reason, I was genuinely, like, on the edge of my seat with anxiety, for, uh, A large part of this movie,
Todd: right?
Waiting for something to happen. I
Craig: was more affected in that way by this movie than most of the traditional horror movies that we’ve. Watched and talked about so I, I definitely think it counts. I never thought we’d see the day where we were reviewing a Julia Roberts movie.
Todd: Man, if she go, if she passes, we’ve already used up the potential horror movie that we’ve I
Craig: think she’s good.
I think. Our expiration date comes far before hers. I’m
Todd: not wishing, I’m not wishing any doom on Julia Roberts, but Julia Roberts, this is our tribute episode to you. Yeah, in advance. Oh man, I
Craig: don’t know about you, Todd, but I feel pretty safe in saying that Kristen and I are both Big Julia Roberts fans. Big.
Huge.
Todd: Since when? Since when?
Craig: Oh, since we were little tiny kids watching a movie about prostitutes.
Todd: Which we all saw when we were kids, and now our parents are appalled. Oh my god,
Craig: it was the most beautiful fairy tale of all.
Todd: Gets a lot of criticism nowadays actually, doesn’t it? Uh, doesn’t
Craig: bologna, not for you guys.
No, fantastic movie. I love Julia Roberts. I think she’s a very talented actress. Uh, and I think that she puts that on display here, even though she’s kind of a bitch, but like
Kristen: a huge bitch. That’s a problem. I had right from the beginning. I was like, Oh, Julia, I don’t like you.
Craig: Well, the movie starts, the movie opens in there in all blue.
Monica’s apartment in French, New York. Yeah. . And she’s just like, okay. So she’s married to Ethan Hawk. I, I, I won’t remember what their real names are, but
Kristen: yeah. Okay. I wrote them young because I had already watched the whole movie and had no idea what anyone’s names were. Ah, but Ethan Hawk is Clay and she is Amanda.
Todd: Yeah. Are those names ever even uttered? I’m not sure.
Craig: Yeah, I’m sure they, they are. ’cause they introduced themselves to a couple of people. Oh, that’s right. One of the things that I love about this movie and I didn’t take any notes This is the first time ever in the history of the podcast. I didn’t take any notes But we talked last week about the trials and tribulations of taking notes And I decided I was just gonna sit and enjoy this movie and as it turns out it worked out because there’s not a gaggle of characters to keep up with
Todd: nor a massively intricate plot or anything.
Craig: No No, it’s, it’s relatively simple. Tons of stuff happens and it’s long, it’s two and a half hours long, but I didn’t have any problem keeping up with it, but it opens up with Julia Roberts just standing in a window and Ethan Hawk wakes up and she’s like, Oh, um, I just decided that we’re going to go on vacation.
And he’s like, Oh, really? When? Today. And I’ve already got everything packed and I, uh, already got like an Airbnb by the beach and we’re going and he’s like, well, why? And she’s like, When I couldn’t fall back asleep this morning, I came over here to watch the sunrise and I saw all these people starting their day with such tenacity, such ferv all in an.
effort to make something of themselves, make something of our world. I felt so lucky to be
Kristen: a part of
Craig: that, but then I remembered what the world is actually like, and I came to a more accurate realization.
I hate
Todd: people.
Craig: That’s the opening of the movie. Yeah. So they’re going on vacation.
Todd: It’s interesting because even in that opening when she says that line, there’s a zoom move. That really struck me. You don’t usually see zoom moves in modern movies. We’ve called them out on occasion. I don’t know what that means.
When instead of like dollying the camera in, you just like you’ve got your camcorder, you push the zoom button, you just turn the lens to kind of blow up the picture and get closer to that person. It’s definitely a different aesthetic. It looks different. You can kind of tell if you put the two together instead of things kind of moving by the camera as you’re passing by them or the The perspective changing, it just looks like you’re blowing up the image, in a way.
And, uh, that was a big technique that they used in the 70s. I think probably when, when they were trying to be edgy and do things new, and zoom lenses were kind of a thing. And now, you’d never see it in movies. Well, you rarely, obviously, see it in movies. You see it in this one. Uh, and so, you know, it’s a very stylistic choice.
And one thing I really liked about this movie is it was very stylistic. But not in a, go on. It’s hugely
Kristen: stylistic, and that’s like, I watched it the first time, and That’s why I kept calling Craig like have you watched it yet? Have you watched it yet? I can’t figure this movie out. There was so much when I rewatched it the second time for this.
There’s so much symbolism I have nine pages just dealing with like symbolism and style in this movie But I couldn’t figure it out the zoom. I told Craig it’s kind of like With the music, and all the colors, and everything’s blue, and then this zoom in on her face, and then like this rap song with all this imagery over the opening credits, like, I can’t figure out what movie I’m
Todd: watching.
Well, miss nine pages of notes, I think you should just take it over from here. Oh god.
Kristen: It’s just, it’s just lists. So like, this is blue. That’s also blue. Their wall’s blue. Her clothes are blue. Everything is blue.
Craig: And not just blue, but basically the same shade of blue. Like everything’s dark blue. And I have no idea why you talked about the zoom effect.
There’s that they do a lot of that and they do a lot of turning the camera to 90, 180, or 360 degrees. Like. There are so many, it made me dizzy too. There are so many shots that are, the camera is on its side and it’ll be interesting. Like Ethan Hawke will bring Julia Roberts, a glass of water in the morning in bed and in the frame, the glass of water looks like it’s turned on its side, but.
I don’t know, whatever. I don’t know, I know what
Kristen: you’re talking about. Well, she’s laying on her side, and so it’s almost a little from her perspective, like, as she wakes up, and then it, like, will turn. And if you’re like me and Craig, and you can’t handle that kind of stuff, you feel really dizzy and disoriented, but I don’t think that’s a mistake at all.
And I looked up the blue, Craig, you said you didn’t know why. Well, I got on so many Reddit threads.
Todd: Reddit’s gotta
Kristen: figure it out. Yeah, so who knows, like, whatever. But a lot of people said, like, blue. And when you Google, like, significance of the color blue, it’s all, like, hope and peace and everything like that.
And then the blue kind of changes as you go through the movie. And so Everything is really really blue. Every single person who leaves the beach and we haven’t gotten to the beach yet, they’re all wearing blue. I was trying to look for people not wearing blue. Every single person was wearing blue. And so I think in the beginning of the movie they go on this vacation and they’re hopeful and you know, she’s, she’s really cynical, we know, and she says she hates people.
But I think they’re just sort of like, hey, we’re gonna reconnect. With each other sort of disconnect from the state of things and they’re kind of hopeful and just looking to relax and everything is low and that it changes as the movie progresses.
Todd: Well, I like the contrast between these two characters. I think that.
Ethan Hawke is totally me. Ha
Kristen: ha ha ha ha! Oh my god, he’s totally my husband, too. Ha ha
Todd: ha ha ha! And Julia Roberts is, is, is totally big. I mean, like, uh, like, the very cautious person, uh, She seems a little more uptight, she seems, uh, Oh, I’m describing Julia Roberts character now. Probably there’s a reason she hates people, She just, like, it seems very critical, maybe, all
Craig: the time.
She explains it later, and we may as well just explain it now. She, she says that, In her job, it’s her job to read people and then sell them a bunch of shit. They don’t need. And she says, when you really inspect people that, Oh my God, I’m totally jumping. This is way, way later, but I feel like it’s. It explains her character and I almost would have preferred to hear it earlier because I was just so irritated with like, stop being such a cunt.
Like, and, and there’s another, like, there’s another character who we’ll get to in a second who constantly is calling her out on it. And ultimately she, she’s like, yeah, I’m a bitch. Like I
Todd: get it. She didn’t seem to mind actually being called out on it.
Craig: Basically, it comes down to, it’s a little heavy handed when you get to know people that well, you come to find that people f ing suck.
Like, we’re, we’re all horrible. We only care about ourselves. We treat each other horribly. We, everything, we just leave destruction in our wake and we’re like, Oh, it’ll be fine. So what? Who cares? Like, God, I can’t believe I already jumped there. But I feel like that’s kind of. What the movie was telling us, but you don’t know that along the way.
I couldn’t figure out what kind of movie this was. I didn’t know anything about it going in, and that was good. And it also intrigued Alan. I’m like, I don’t know, it’s got Julia Roberts, it’s like kind of a thriller, I don’t know. So we watched it together. All throughout, at least the first half, I had suspicions of what it might be.
But there were times when I was like, is it going to be super? Is it supernatural? Is it going to be like a zombie movie? Is it, is it like aliens or aliens? Is it an epidemic? I couldn’t figure it out. And that was part of the suspense that kept me.
Todd: It sort of had shades of The Happening, that M. Night Shyamalan movie.
Um, simply because it deals with this event that nobody knows how to deal with, and sort of the point of the movie is nobody knows how to deal with it. A lot of the films that are made about apocalyptic problems, it starts there. Okay, there’s a big apoca there’s some kind of disaster or something, and people are thrown into confusion.
And there’s one guy or one girl who, you know, takes control and takes charge, and the story revolves around that person and their struggles to survive. But, you know, I think the happening got a lot of flack just for being realistic. It’s almost essentially just a bunch of people stumbling around, not knowing what to do, and there’s your movie.
And, to be honest, I think that’s pretty reflective of how things would kind of be if something like this did happen, at least for a while, and at least for some of us. You know, and we see that contrast in the movie too, later,
Craig: I think. Yeah, that’s a big part of it too, like, what would happen if some major event like this happened.
We’re skirting around. Well, no, I, I want to get to, okay, so they go to this house. This house that they’ve rented, which Is awesome. They intimate, at some point, is like, a little bit over 2, 000 a night or no, excuse for the whole weekend. A little over 2, 000 for the whole weekend. Uh, yeah,
Kristen: right. I have stayed in many at Airbnb and they are much smaller than that.
And it’s still can cost
Craig: almost exactly what I was going to say. This house is amazing. Like it is, it’s, it’s stunningly beautiful. It’s, it’s. Got like an atrium, and a pool, and a garden, and, uh, it’s very secluded even though they’re near a beach. And everything seems great. The wife goes into town and gets groceries and sees mysterious Kevin Bacon buying lots of bottled water.
Kristen: At the Blue Grocery
Craig: Store. Oh, you’re right. Was it called the Blue Grocery
Todd: Store?
Kristen: No, no, everything was blue all the sides, but the town they were in was called Comfort Point.
Todd: Yeah, that was
Kristen: cute, right? Well, at first I thought they were leaving comfort, because it showed the street sign, and so I was like, oh, they’re leaving their comfort zone.
But they were going to
Craig: comfort point. Yeah, they were. That’s
Todd: funny. And you know, it’s like, I don’t know if they’re supposed to be rich. Obviously they’re well enough off to have a nice weekend like this, but they seem to have an apartment in the city, which is also expensive, so who knows. But they’re definitely They’re definitely not middle class middle class.
They’re upper middle class, if not higher than that, to be able to be out here in this thing. I feel like perhaps the house was still an upgrade even for them. Um,
Kristen: Yeah, because at some point in the movie, at some point, And we’ll get there but she’s kind of made some digs at these other characters we’ll be introduced to and I noticed that the second time I watched it, they mentioned, like Ethan Hawke mentions the neighborhood they live in and he’s like, oh yeah, that’s a really affordable place to live.
Oh, that’s why I was gonna go there. So it’s kind of like he pushed back a little bit like, that’s true. Anyway, we don’t know who those characters are yet, but
Craig: they show up in a second. But, but, okay. So everything’s going great. Like the kids are swimming in the pool. Um, she goes and gets groceries, their husband and wife, and they had a 15 minutes.
So they bang and everything’s great. And then they go to the beach. As soon as they get there, the daughter Rose. I don’t know this actress from anything else. Her name is Farrah McKenzie. She notices an, like an oil tanker on the coastline, um, or, or the horizon, excuse me. And, you know, whatever. They go about their beach day and, but she keeps looking at it and she keeps saying, like, I think it’s getting closer.
Uh, and then they’re all just You know, sunbathing, sleeping, reading, whatever. And Julia Roberts happens to turn around and it’s getting kind of alarmingly close and she wakes up her husband and he’s like, Oh, I’m sure it’s going to be, I mean, it’ll stop, you know, it has to stop, whatever. It becomes very apparent that it’s not going to stop and it’s coming right at them and they wake up the son, uh, whatever his name is, Archie, Archie.
They wake him up and they all get up and they run. And I was at least. Glad that this movie was smart enough to have them run. Perpendicular to the boat. Yeah, because what was that? What was that dumb? It was that Ridley Scott alien remake with Charlize Theron where a thing was falling and she was running right under the path of it.
Yeah, run to the side you dummy. So so they so they get out of the way like intelligent people but this thing totally beaches itself and that’s a strange incident. That they strangely then don’t want to talk.
Kristen: They’re like, they’re all weirded out in the car. Like they’re leaving obviously. And then all of a sudden Julia Roberts is like, Ooh, Starbucks.
And then it’s like, oh my god, she’s like, let’s get some
Todd: coffee. That was hilarious. I do feel like that’s a commentary too though, right?
Craig: I mean, we’re so easily distracted.
Todd: We are. And not just on these people, but just in general, all of us are kind of this way. And especially because we’re so connected now, almost nothing surprises us anymore, right?
Like, you hear about, all day long, you hear about different things that are happening in different parts of the world, and all of it seems so fantastic for a while, until none of it does. And so then if something like this happens to you, It is going to be crazy and strange, but maybe we are just going to kind of end up going on about our day without giving it much more thought.
Well, that’s a total
Kristen: theme of the whole movie, too. It’s just kind of like these big signs or things happen. And you’re like, whoa, that was so weird. And then it’s like, all right, back to our day.
Todd: Right. And somehow it’s, it’s realistic. I mean, I kind of, there was no point in this movie where I thought, oh, that’s, that’s unrealistic.
I just sort of feel like this is how A lot of people would act, or at least these people would act, because they are trying to get away, and so they are a bit unconnected. Now, we’re all always connected, even when we’re on vacation. We’re trying to get online, we’re getting on our laptops, or we’re trying to at least use our phones just to do things.
I thought it was funny, there’s a point in the movie where Ethan Hawke’s character mentions that I can’t do anything! I’m used to using my phone for everything, and I don’t have that now. Now I’m completely helpless. But because they’re getting away for vacation, They’re in this unique situation where they don’t really care and they’re, I mean, it’s annoying.
Yeah, but they’re not like questioning, why is the internet down? Why is the television service out? Plus, I guess they’re in a different home, so.
Craig: Right. I, I found that to be realistic, like, oh, well, we’re away from home, maybe the Wi Fi’s bad, maybe the phone service is bad. Like, they’re not in this, like, the daughter’s irritated because she’s been watching Friends and has gotten up to the season finale, or the series.
Finale, and it locked up because we lost
Kristen: internet. As a parent, I could totally relate to this. As a parent of a teen and a almost teen, I could totally relate to like, Hey, we just spent like all our money on this cool vacation place. And our kids being like, well, my life is ruined because there is an internet.
Craig: Yeah, there’s one part where the daughter comes and wakes up the parents like you guys, the internet’s down and the TV doesn’t work. Get up. Fix it. . Yeah. I I thought that was pretty funny too. Okay. So Well, she
Kristen: said, she goes, she goes, I have anxiety about how this is gonna end. And I thought, yeah. Same about this movie
Todd: You, me
Craig: too. Right. I, I also thought that it was weird that she had gotten through the entire season her series of friends and didn’t think it was weird when her mom was on it. Right.
her mom
Kristen: stole Jeweller’s pants. .
Todd: That’s
Craig: hilarious. Anyway, was Ethan the Hawk on friends? I don’t remember. No, I don’t know. I don’t think so. But Julia Roberts definitely was. That was an interesting in universe funny thing. But okay, so this thing, the whole thing’s broken up into chapters. And this first chapter is called The House.
And I think that it’s still in this chapter. It’s nighttime. This weird thing has happened. They go to bed, but then there’s a knock on the door. The score behind all of this Almost gave me a heart attack. The, the score is constantly telling you that something terrible is about to happen. Yeah, it’s like you’re the whole movie.
Kristen: The mom and dad are still up, and this is like another, God, it just, I was so anxious because I’ve been those people, not Rich, but I’ve been those
Craig: people like I saw, I saw you in this scene. Yeah,
Kristen: I told Rick, I said, I called him and the reason I wanted him to watch it was because I needed someone to talk to about it and I watched it alone, and I said, oh my God, Ethan Hawke is so, my husband.
And she is me, except I’m not, I hope I’m not quite that bitchy and jaded, but her, her distrust of people and just like always worried about the worst thing first was so me. And so like, she’s, they’re just chatting in the kitchen and she’s like, did you hear that? And that’s so me. And he’s like, no. And he just keeps talking.
And it’s just like, there is someone here. And that, that total, that whole scene, I said, you’ll know the scene, Craig, you’ll know when it’s me. And it’s my
Todd: husband. And I did.
Kristen: And it just goes on through this whole scene. This is exactly how it would play out in my
Craig: house. Yeah. So these people, there’s one difference between you and her in this scene. That we will talk about, but so there, so somebody knocks on the door, uh, and then it’s the middle of the night. It’s like three in the morning or something like that.
So they’re kind of scared. And, and like Ethan Hawke, like grabs a sculpture to me, uses a weapon. I don’t know, but, um, it’s a very well dressed couple of people. I couldn’t tell at first if it was. Uh, man and woman like in a romantic relationship, but no, it’s, um, a father and daughter, both very, you know, good looking people.
The dad is played by Mahershala Ali,
Kristen: and he is very good looking.
Craig: He is very good looking. I read that Denzel Washington was originally cast, but ended up dropping out. And I think I’m glad, because I think, one, there would have been something jarring about having
Todd: Denzel Washington show up at your doorstep?
Well,
Craig: Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts together, especially, I don’t know, I feel like it would have been too much. Um, this guy is really successful. I think this guy’s got Oh, he’s an Oscar
Todd: winner! Yeah, yeah, yeah. Two. Two
Craig: times. Yeah. And his daughter. Um, but she’s immediately suspicious of them, which I get like, I’m cautious with people too, but they say, look, there’s a blackout in the city.
We came from the city. We have not had
Todd: the pleasure of meeting
Craig: face to face. I’m, I’m G H G H Scott, George. He’s George. That’s how it reads in his email. Forgive me. I forgot. See, this is why I much prefer life. Because we would have spoken on the phone, would have recognized my voice and known that this is our house.
I’m sorry? Uh, this is our house. I’m the George you emailed back and forth with. No, I, I remember the name, I just This is This is your house?
Todd: Like, that, like,
Kristen: she, why, why is
Craig: she blatantly racist? I think it’s just supposed to be that she hates everyone, but she allows race to be one of the things that she judges people by.
And they even have, like, they become friends later. Amanda and GH. This is the Julia Roberts and this guy that just showed up. They become friends later. I have no idea why he shows her so much grace. I think we’re just supposed to believe that he’s a genuinely good person. Because even the daughter is not having this racist nonsense.
And, like, I love that she pushes back all the time. And, and at one point, Julia Roberts is like, um, I’m sorry. Uh, I just don’t trust you. And Ruth is like, Hmm, I wonder what it could be about us that would lead us not or lead you to not trust us. And the dad, seriously, like he’s just too genuinely good. He’s like, no, Ruth, Ruth, no, no.
Like he’s just constantly trying to stop conflict, which good for him. Yeah,
Kristen: but I think also, it’s not just like he’s a genuinely good guy, I think this is a very real thing that people of color just have to deal with constantly, and it’s kind of like the whole thing where it’s like we’re gonna teach our, our black sons that, you know, it’s like hands in the air, if police stop you, don’t do anything, like, I think it’s something that he’s probably become so accustomed to, like, oh, we’ve always got to explain ourselves, people are just gonna doubt, so you have to be pleasant, you can’t get And so I don’t think it’s just he’s a nice guy.
I think that was probably very purposeful. Yeah.
Todd: And how I’m sure you’re right. Yeah. Well, at one point he does say to them, you know, they’re like, the girl is, is really saying we need to get them to leave. And. He’s saying, well, that’s not going to happen if we scare them. So he’s doing everything in his power to keep that family calm and not scare them in any way, shape
Craig: or form.
And we’re talking about them in the context of already knowing these characters and who they are. Ultimately, this was a really tense part of the movie because we don’t know who these people are either. They say. It’s their house, but when she eventually, and it takes a while, when she eventually asks to see his ID, he’s like, Oh, uh, I must’ve lost it.
Todd: we’ve seen a lot of, uh, home invasion movies that start off this way. Right.
Craig: And I kept looking at Alan, like, no, no, something, something’s up. Something’s up. Yeah.
Kristen: Something’s going on. I have seen too many stories about those Airbnb killers. Like, that’s where my mind would be. And so when they said that, that would be where I say, Oh, I don’t know.
Bye. And that’s where Julia
Craig: Roberts is like, she’s like, we don’t know these people. They are strangers. My children are sleeping down the hall. Like I get it. I understand why she’s. Trepidatious about it. It makes total sense. But they eventually end up, because Ethan Hawke is like, Oh, no, I’m sure they’re nice.
You know, why wouldn’t we believe them? They seem like nice
Kristen: people. Which is my husband! Again! In fact, I would so be her, like, Can we talk in the other room, please?
Todd: Right. Pardon us for a moment.
Craig: That Ethan Hawke lets them stay and they sleep downstairs in like, what does he call it? The in laws chambers or something, eventually that bothers.
There’s a lot of stuff going on here. This movie, like we are probably going to get responses and be like, this is such a woke movie. It really is. I mean, if that’s what, if you’re defining woke as. Addressing issues and, and having a point of view, then yeah, this is a woke movie. There’s, there’s, uh, you know, blatant racial issues.
There are blatant environmental issues. There are blatant, uh, technology things, political commentary. There’s a, again, jumping ahead of myself, but there’s a shady figure later on who shall not be named. That’s clearly Elon Musk.
Kristen: So there are And it was produced by the Obamas. And it was
Craig: produced by the Obamas.
Another thing I, uh, I was talking to Alan, and I was like, Okay, so Julia Roberts agent is like, Hey, Julia Roberts, do you want to be in a horror thriller? No. Produced by the Obamas. Yes.
Kristen: I saw her actually talk about this in an interview and she was like, already connected to it. But she said, but then anyone who would listen to me, I’m like, Hey, did you know that the Obamas are executive producing this?
Craig: And it’s based on a book that I would actually be really interested in reading because I think there’s a lot of storytelling going on here.
That’s very interesting. And a lot of times a story like this. I think would be better told as a limited series. And I also don’t typically particularly enjoy movies that are over two hours long, but I think that this was just right. I think that they packed the storytelling into just, I feel like if it had been drawn out over eight hours.
It potentially could have gotten boring. Oh yeah. Um, but I think that it needed the two hours and twenty minutes or whatever it is to get out as much as it could, and I really liked it. And we’re still in the first chapter. Oh my god, I know. So, this, so, uh, they end up letting them stay and everything’s fine for a while.
The only other interesting thing that’s going on is that there are lots of deer? No. Deer just keep showing up, like. flocks of deer. This was I live in. I live in rural Missouri. It’s a very deer Hunting place and deer do sometimes travel in herds, but not like this. No, not hundreds of deer. Just staring at you from the hedges.
Yeah, so something is definitely weird going on. Okay, I
Todd: do have a criticism about this movie, now that you brought up the deer. Because, I guess I gotta give it a pass because we still don’t know for sure, even by the end of the film, exactly what happened. But I cannot imagine a cataclysmic event that would happen.
Where over the course of a day, nature starts to take over, you know,
Craig: I think the movie explains it. It’s a blink and you miss it thing. There’s a point where Ethan Hawke is in the car and he’s been listening to the radio, but it’s just been static or he’s not been able to get anything. And then I think he even maybe gets out of the car.
He gets out of the car so he doesn’t get to hear it, but we do. And it says, whatever this is. They still can’t identify it, but whatever it is, it has caused disturbances in the migration patterns of animals. Oh,
Kristen: okay. Yeah, and they’re even sort of suggesting that there may be radiation in the air, and that’s like the animals are moving away or they’re sensing
Todd: something.
Oh, radiation. We know for movies that can explain anything. Okay. All right. No criticism here anymore.
Craig: Well, I mean, he’s still, it still doesn’t make a, I don’t understand what is happening. I don’t understand because they also keep saying the, the, the young daughter is the one that noticed all these deer and she keeps saying, and the other later when a flock of flamingos.
Laying in the pool. Uh, Ruth. Also comes to both the daughters come to the conclusion the animals are trying to tell us something, right? They know something and they’re trying to warn us. Do they wait? What are they? What are they warning you against and and then there’s a scene later Yeah, we, the story sequentially is very easy to explain, but I want to talk about these things as I think about them.
So I don’t forget there’s a scene late in the movie where Ruth is in the woods near the house and the horde of deer surround her and like their leader comes right up to her face. And then Julia Roberts runs in and saves the day by screaming and scaring them all away. I was like, what? Maybe she’s Snow White.
I think that they want to like lead her to a magical land. And Alan was like, she just needs to start singing. The song.
Kristen: Well, I didn’t know them, like, are they warning or do, are they hungry? Do they want to eat the people? What are the deer doing?
Craig: And we never
Todd: find out. It’s played sinister though. It’s played sinister because it’s, and this, the movie does this a couple times and I absolutely loved, I loved this choice.
Where it takes two events that are happening simultaneously, and they’re both equally intense, and they’re both equally building, the score lets you know, and it cuts back and forth between them, and then they both resolve, in exactly the same way, more or less, at exactly the same time. I really liked that.
That was really cool. And I can’t think of too many movies where I’ve seen that happen. Although it’s not uncommon, I think. Uh, this movie did it like three or four times. And so, because what was happening on the other end, I don’t remember exactly what it was, but it was way more sinister than this. Oh, it was the, kind of, The gun.
The gun standoff. I read the deer thing as equally sinister and potentially deadly. I
Craig: didn’t know, like, potentially deadly, yes, because deer are very powerful animals, um, I would, you, you certainly don’t want to tussle with one, especially males with antlers, I mean, they could gore you in a second, but it didn’t seem like The deer were threatening them.
Well, I don’t know if you’re
Todd: surrounded by any wild
Craig: animal. Definitely be scared. I would, I would shit my pants. I would do the same thing that Julia Roberts did, which is smart. You know, make yourself bigger and loud and scare them away. They, they, they are deer are also very, they’re skittish and you can scare them away very easily, but also.
If they wanted to hurt that girl, why didn’t they? Yeah. Well,
Kristen: I thought, just turn back around and go back in that shed. Well, that’s
Craig: true. Just try to get away from it. Ha ha ha, don’t stand there and stare them
Kristen: down. I would try that first, and then if I had to scare them I would, but I would just be like, Uh, I’m going back inside.
Craig: Ha ha ha, well. I still don’t understand it. I, I did not get the impression that they had malicious intent. So I, I still don’t understand what was going on there, other than the movie tells us it affects their migration. Well, that’s fine if it affects their migration, but these deer aren’t migrating.
They’re all just hanging around this house.
Todd: Yeah, that’s, that’s, again, I mean, that’s like, it’s, it seems to be more than migration being affected here, right? All I know is that as soon as she came out and screamed and the deer ran away, ran away, I could breathe and I was like, oh, okay, good, they’re not gonna get shot.
Not the deer. But the people in the other scene, the way the scene
Craig: was played out, right? And, and the CGI was pretty convincing too, I have to give it credit where credit’s due.
Todd: You don’t think they had trained
Craig: deer? No, I don’t.
Kristen: I can’t remember if I read it or if I watched some YouTube clip of an interview, but the director did talk about the deer as like, And the deer are part of the book too, but he talked about liking how in the beginning, the deer, you know, first Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke see the deer and they’re like, Oh, how sweet.
And the husband’s like, yeah, he’s like, he’s like, it’s a good omen. But then he talks about this peaceful thing that people see and they think it’s so cool. Kind of becomes menacing just because everything is becoming menacing because they don’t know what the heck is going on Well, and so he said he just really liked that imagery too of like once you don’t know what is happening Even the most peaceful things all of a sudden are like these ominous menacing creatures That’s
Todd: true.
And they do play the deer kind of like a horror movie. There’s a point where
Craig: 100 percent
Todd: that great shot where she it’s dark outside she goes to the kitchen to like it gets a some coffee and she flips on a couple different lights because Hey, she’s in a new house, she doesn’t know which one’s which.
One of the lights flips on the lights outside and the minute she flips it on behind her, you see just like six glowing
Craig: eyes. Yeah. Oh, way more than that. Like six pairs, six pairs.
Kristen: And it’s as scary as if it was ghost
Todd: face. Yeah, it was. It was freaky. And then it comes off and you’re like, no, no, no. Turn around and look at the deer.
I’m not sure why, but that’s how I felt. That’s how it played.
Craig: It’s so funny because I am so familiar. With deer that that’s exactly what it would look like their eyes do luminous like that When light is is somebody who’s not familiar with deer would think ah, they’re like ghost demons, right? That’s that’s really what they look like.
So you weren’t
Todd: met a stop. I just thought the way that
Craig: I thought it was super creepy Right. It’s just I I’ve seen that in real life. I know that’s a
Todd: real thing Well, it is cool how the director played those horror movie conventions in this way to freak us out, even though, ultimately, you know, there was nothing, at least in many of these circumstances, to freak us out, at least in the traditional horror sense, like, these things are gonna get you.
That happened multiple times in the movie where he played with these conventions of a horror movie to instill that horror and instill that dread without us getting the typical payoff of, ah, now you’re dead,
Craig: you know, kind of thing. Yes, I, I, I, Continue to assert that the score plays a large part of that, like all the time.
Like I seriously, I said, okay, I get it like out loud. I said, okay, I get it. I’m scared. Stop. Somebody die already.
Kristen: Thing. Something let us know what’s happening, but we skipped from like chapter one to the end
Craig: chapter. Well, right. I was going to say no. So, okay. We got the house and then the other people show up.
And they let them stay. And then the second chapter is called the curve. And really the only thing they kind of split off the kids go exploring in the woods and he gets bit by a tick or something. Then Julia Roberts and G H or whatever his name is, um, have a conversation. Now he’s shady. He clearly knows.
It’s here that he just says, oh, if you pay attention to things, you notice that things happen in waves. And when the curve starts to shift one way, you know, something’s about to go down. Like, well,
Kristen: he talks about the market, like that’s what he does in his line of work. And you can watch for signs leading up to some big event.
And so he knew something was kind of coming because there had been some events happening.
Craig: Right, so he knew something was coming. He’s still being very evasive and we find out later that he does know more than he’s telling now But he claims that he’s not and then there’s a high pitched Squealing that they all hear that is torturous to them and Julia her kids are out in the woods So Julia Roberts just blindly runs into the woods to find her kids and that’s when the next chapter comes up and it’s the sound The noise, the noise.
Is it the noise? Yeah. I tried so hard.
Todd: Well, you didn’t take nine pages of notes, Craig.
Craig: No, I did not. I was just going to say it happens and then she is majestically reunited with her kids. Like they’re five feet away and the son is like, at some point, Oh man, I guess I should have covered my ears. Faster. I feel kind of funny now But
Kristen: he also just got bitten by a disgusting bug that was like burrowing into his ankle
Craig: That he acted like was no big deal.
Like he picked out inside his body. Uh huh, and he pulled out like a long bloody string. It was
Kristen: disgusting. I just wrote gross bug. Like it was disgusting. And then he just goes on like, you know, a bug was on me. But no, that bug was in you. It was really
Craig: and then the husband tries to go into town but gets lost and disoriented.
And he comes across a woman on the highway. And again, I think that this is just commentary about how a Self centered we are but at the same time, I
Kristen: thought it was so sad. It really
Craig: affected him And I think he this woman she she’s not in English speaking She only speaks Spanish and he doesn’t speak Spanish.
My Spanish is so poor The only thing that I could understand was please you’re the first person I’ve seen all day And she was clearly asking for help. Something about an
Todd: airplane. Yeah,
Kristen: well I have been doing my Spanish lessons every day for over a year now. And so I was really pleased with myself that I caught a few things.
But yeah, she talked about she was lost, she needed to get back to her house, she couldn’t find her family. I think she mentioned something about chemicals or she didn’t know what was going on. Like something was really scaring her. And she, he was the first person she’d seen all day. And she was like, please, please take me back to my house.
Craig: I also didn’t, that’s one of my only criticisms about the movie. Where are all the other people? There would be tons of people. Even out in this isolated area. Mahershala’s
Kristen: character said you hardly ever see anybody else in this area at this time of year. So he kind of explained that, kind of like this is like a summer home or something, I don’t know.
Todd: But the beach was full of people. I mean, I don’t know, that beach could have been 20 miles down the road, but still.
Craig: I don’t know. Yeah. And the roads are all locked up. So he doesn’t help her. He just leaves her on the side of the road. And then some big drone flies over. I had no idea what was going on. I couldn’t tell if it was like a swarm of insects or I thought
Kristen: it was gas at
Craig: first or something.
Yeah. Yeah. Like that’s, I thought either a swarm of insects or like crop dusting. It’s not meant to be something like that. It turns out it was like flyers, like death to America in Arabic. And so that happens to him. The, the other dad, uh, has gone off as well. I don’t remember why, but he ends up on a beach where.
Kristen: Oh, he went to, so he went to his, like a friend’s house who, yeah. He’s like, he’ll know, like, he’s kind of a, he’s always prepared. He’ll know what’s going on. Kind of
Craig: a thing. And so the, the house is all torn up and he, and he stumbles down to the beach and. I wasn’t wearing my glasses. I rarely do when I’m just watching TV and Alan’s like, did you see that?
I was like, no, he’s like, I think that was a bunch of bodies. Oh yeah, it was obvious. He stumbles down there and like, he sees a watch in the sand and he goes to pick it up and Alan says, that’s going to be attached to an arm, which it totally is. A disembodied arm that freaks him out. And he starts looking around and realizes that he’s surrounded by bodies.
And I was like, so he just stumbled onto this beach littered with bodies. Didn’t notice anything, but that watch.
Todd: That was probably
Craig: smell
Kristen: real green
Craig: and plane crashes, multiple plane crashes. And then another one crashes while he’s there. Like he has to run away from it. Why are I okay. Why on this beach? I exactly, I can buy hackers hacking into systems and crashing airplanes that I can easily buy why they are all crashing on this beach.
That makes no
Kristen: sense to me. Well, I don’t think they’re all crashing on that beach, but he talked about there was an airport there because his wife was gonna fly into one. So I just, you know, I figure there are probably planes crashing all over the place, but they don’t have communications anymore, or people, you know, like, they’re not being guided, so nothing, everything’s failing, and so because they’re close to an airport, that’s why these planes are crashing there, but I don’t think it’s all the planes.
Think about how many planes are in the sky every day.
Craig: I guess, but I wouldn’t think that four of them would crash at the
Kristen: exact same place, that is a little
Craig: weird. Yeah, true. Anyway, okay, so then they all come back, and they don’t know what’s going on. And so, the kids go to bed at like, Eight o’clock, I guess.
Todd: Well, when the power’s
Craig: out, that’s When you got no internet. I guess, right. And, and the girl laments not being able to watch Friends, and the guy jerks it to pictures that he took of the other daughter, not his sister, the other one.
Kristen: No, he didn’t feel good. He couldn’t do
Craig: it. He’s yeah, he couldn’t finish.
Yeah, he didn’t feel good. It’s so funny that you say that because that’s what I thought. I was like, you’re not even gonna finish. You got started. I mean, anyway, uh, and so then the adults are split up. Ethan Hawk is with the other daughter, Ruth and Julia Roberts is with G H. And I thought that they both independently of one another.
We’re going to bang, right? If I felt like that, that’s where the movie was taking us because Ethan Hawke and Ruth get stoned together and talk and he confesses that, uh, he left that woman helpless. But then Julia Roberts and the other guy have a long
Kristen: conversation. They’re drunk, they’re drinking the whole time.
I wrote in my notes. Mama
Craig: drinks a lot. She does. And Julia Roberts played drunk really well. Yeah, that’s playing drunk is not easy. Not to do it convincingly.
Kristen: It wasn’t over the top. She just was like, it totally loosened her up. And it made sense for her character, because she’s so uptight, that she probably does drink a lot to try to
Craig: relax.
Yeah, and she’s like, I changed my mind, I like you, and he’s It’s like, yeah, I kind of found you pretty prickly at first, but you’ve grown on me. And so they’re getting along, they’re laughing. And then he starts telling her this story about how he’s got this big client. He’s like, I’m not going to tell you the name, but if I did, you’d totally know who it was.
It’s somebody who’s into like high tech security and blah, blah, blah. Like there are several people that he could be talking about, but he’s obviously talking about one of the billionaires like Elon Musk. score, Bezos or Zuckerberg or whoever. He’s obviously talking about one of these guys. And he says that he went to a party at one of their, at this guy’s house and they got really drunk together.
And the guy was like, Oh, I really like you. I wish I could take you on vacation with me next year. And he jokingly, no, he said, where, where are you going? And the guy said, Oh, just my annual meeting with the evil cabal that runs the world. And then, like, he says that the guy telling the story, G. H., says it very seriously, and then he starts laughing.
He’s like, oh, he was just kidding.
Todd: And he makes jokes like
Craig: this, yeah. Yeah, and then Julia Roberts is like, haha, I’m gonna grab another glass of wine. And he grabs her by the arm, very ominously. And he goes, and then. I don’t even remember what he said. It was just so ominous.
Kristen: Well, he talked about, well, yeah, he was joking, but then, like.
He called me right before all this crap started happening and I had to move money around for him,
Craig: like a lot of money. Right. And, and he was getting out of To town out of America. I don’t know. And he said, take care of yourself. Like he felt sorry for me. So that’s how he knew something was going down.
That’s how he knew how to get out of the city. Yeah.
Todd: He made the email cabal joke back to him, and this time the guy didn’t even laugh, he said, so it was, yeah. Right.
Craig: Yeah.
Kristen: Also, we skipped right over the weird white lady dancing. And I just wrote that and I just wrote that happens right now that is right now, but I
Craig: think she gets mad.
She she’s like, I changed my mind. I don’t like you anymore. And so he’s like, Well, come on, we’ll lighten the mood. And he takes her down to his sex dungeon. I don’t
Todd: know.
Kristen: Library.
Todd: He’s also a musician they talk about, or at least he’s really into music because didn’t he come that’s why he’s dressed up. He came from like a
Craig: A symphony concert.
I think he came from the symphony. He was like on the board of directors of the symphony or something. That’s right. And it’s also been established that she’s big time into like R& B and rap and hip hop. And so he takes her downstairs and he’s like, do you want to listen to
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