Screenwriter: Rumaan Alam and Sam Esmail
Director: Sam Esmail
Starring: Mahershala Ali, Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Ruth Scott, Kevin Bacon
Dear America,
Emily Dickinson says, “Hope is the thing with feathers.”
She also wrote a lot of poems about death. That woman didn’t seem afraid, much, of anything.
We Americans all very tired, and we all want a break from life, except for the people who will use our tiredness and our distractive tendencies for their own vicious aims. We may want to “leave the world behind.”
This month, the Ms. Wonderful Film Club is focusing on an actor named Ethan Hawke, and one of his recent films is produced from Higher Ground Media, called Leave the World Behind. (I am very excited about this production company founded by Barack and Michelle Obama.)
This movie is well-written and interesting, and in it, Hawke plays a befuddled dad who is fairly unremarkable, except he is called into action when his child becomes sick and needs a doctor.
There are all kinds of changes occurring in the setting of this film, as a family ventures outside of New York City to a quiet place for peace and rest. The planets don’t seem to be aligned, weird governmental breakdowns are taking place, and nature becomes scary, like a shrieking widow. (Also, a large boat washes up to shore. Its navigation system has gone frightfully haywire.)
All that families can begin to count on in this apocalyptic breakdown of America is cash, and cash is hard to come by in a digital age where you don’t know who is watching you, or who is controlling the financial industry, and money is really some strange illusory thing that switches hands according to some invisible magician who may or may not be demonic.
Leave the World Behind is a tale with very little hope or knowing about the future. Is this what we want to envision fo ourselves?
What would a vision of hope look like? Safety?
We take things for granted on this earth. We assume that what provides us life, sustenance, and beauty, will keep on doing so, even when we largely ignore Life, Beauty, and Sustenance. We say, “Oh you’re cool but I’m so busy with my aims and goals and vision boards.”
As Alice Walker says in Hard Times Require Furious Dancing, we need the grandmothers to step up. We need the grandmothers and the mothers and the aunts to keep pointing out the bounty that sits on our plates. We need them pointing to the flowers so we see what is alive and able to thrive. We need these sisters reminding us how to treat other people, because they will point out the times we were treated badly and we didn’t like it—and how can we have any human dignity if we do the same to someone else? The Golden Rule remains an intact pact, karmically.
Can we—more intentionally—consider these feminine creatures our knowers, our seers, our leaders, our guides?
They are. And when people are scared and freaking out, they turn to the ones with open arms who will hold and hug them and offer them a sandwich. Women who are resourceful, who know how to play in the dark, and whose song eases children’s nightmares.
Leave the World Behind posits a future we have all likely imagined, and while I appreciate its artistry, I am calling in some accurate historical moving images of those quiet moments where women step in and heal people, and help difficult situations with love, kindness, and compassion. Where they speak with consciousness and clarity, gentleness paired with firmness and truth.
Softness can really make a person’s day. And warmth can make people feel safe. And when we feel peaceful, calm, and good, we want to keep life peaceful, calm, and good. We know what is worth preserving.
Happy Independence Day, America.
May we remember our foremothers, those beautiful indigenous women and African-American women who sang their songs in our forests and among our groves of trees. Who became like the mountains. Who swaddled their children. Who held up their torches and said, Welcome, I love you all.
Blessings,
Ms. Wonderful
*Leave the World Behind is streaming on Netflix