Il mondo dietro di te

A prophetical nightmare about the inevitable consequences of our way of living in the 21st century.

A dysfunctional family with emotionally drained bonds between them, with patterns of social arrogance, mistrust and racism in their relation to another couple, each trapped in a doom-like situation, without a point of return to normal. The way they successfully describe the evolution of a global apocalypse here is disturbing, but absolutely true. It's likely that it won't come with a Big Bang, but with a whimper, a creeping process, which no one is able to understand or control, during everything looks like normal, but under the surface, invisible, everything has already changed with fatal consequences. The occuring events are enigmatic and the uneasiness resulting from that is perfectly shown by camera movements, montage of sequences and sound design.

Nature is out of balance, natural and technical ressources come to an end, our total slavish dependance on digital gadgets makes us vulnerable, a perfect target. Ignorance won't help us out. It's devastating that many of the viewers are already unable to get the crystal clear message of this movie. They prefer to continue, ignore and entertain themselves with stupid sitcoms.

That's what the end is telling us! And that's why they don't get it.

People will cry about the ending, but the ending is the best part of the film. I won't go into details but the ending isn't the ending, it's the beginning. How people can't see that is beyond me.

The film is apocalyptic horror comedy essentially. Also a dive into what makes us human and how we judge others but in reality we're just living in our own delusion. It's very meta and most people won't get it. That's fine.

I really liked the tension, the acting, the score and the comedic break scenes (dancing, etc). The other way this film excels is how it uses exposition. They use character, dialogue and subtleties to slowly bring the plot. It's not for everyone but if you like cinema that's not made to be easily digested, you will like it. Well done! 7.3/10.

Would have made a better series. Some great parts in this film and it has a great cast of actors that somehow keep you watching until the end. However it is very disjointed and just ends without any sort of explanation. Branches of in all sorts of different directions, mini stories shared but not finished. Left with a lot of questions it's like they ended it half an hour too soon. Kevin Bacon has a bit part they could have done more with his character. If you have a couple of hours to kill give it a watch however prepare for the dissatisfaction it leaves you with when the credits roll! 6/10 from me and that's mainly down to the actors.

Started out with lots of promise for a thoughtful, tense thriller. But unfortunately that didn't come to pass. And unfortunately the ending didn't make up for the thin soup we were asked to digest for the previous hour and a half.

I can't even say the acting was terrific, because it just seemed so . . . Adequate. And the direction was off and on, with some really good moments but way too many closeups of faces just wordlessly. . . Looking.

Bless them all for trying but it just didn't hold my attention. Although I hung in there until what I hoped would be a revelatory and redeeming ending. But alas, no.

Facing the apocalypse in a unique way is not an easy thing to do in movies, but director/screenwriter Sam Esmail takes Rumaan Alam's 2020 novel and turns it into an unrelenting 2023 psychological thriller that captures the current extremist political landscape and isolationist world view with sharp acuity. No one real is explicitly mentioned, but so much of the threat presented in the spiraling plot felt not only relevant but palpable. It starts with a last-minute family vacation in a Long Island mansion and the two strangers who enter their lives. Julia Roberts plays an unapologetically mistrustful woman with familiar conviction, while Ethan Hawke does what he can as her laid-back husband. As the mysterious stranger, Mahershala Ali has to play it close to the vest, while Kevin Bacon has an effective turn late in the story. I could've done without some of the contrived camera angles and predictable music cues, but overall the film got me thinking what I would do under similar circumstances.