Barack Obama Includes His Own Movie, ‘Leave The World Behind’, On Best Movies List, Fans Disagree: “You Need To Fix The Ending”

By Samantha Nungesser @samjnungesser
Published Dec. 29, 2023, 1:19 p.m. ET

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Barack Obama is patting himself on the back as he has unveiled his favorite movies of 2023. While his top three choices were produced by his own production company, social media users were hesitant to give some of the flicks, like Leave the World Behind, the same level of praise.

The former POTUS posted his list on X, formerly known as Twitter. He named Rustin, Leave the World Behind and American Symphony — all of which were produced by Higher Ground, the company he co-founded with his wife Michelle Obama in 2018 — as his top three movies of the year.

“I’m biased since these movies were produced by Higher Ground but these are in fact three of the best films I saw this year,” Obama noted.

The politician also recognized movies like The Holdovers, Blackberry, Oppenheimer, American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, Monster, Past Lives, Air, Polite Society and A Thousand and One in his roundup. He later amended the list in the comments section, where he wrote, “Update: I just saw The Color Purple and loved it. I’m adding it to this list as one of my favorite movies of the year.”

However, moviegoers didn’t necessarily agree that Leave the World Behind, the apocalyptic psychological thriller starring Julia Roberts, deserved its second-place spot.

“Leave the World Behind was TERRIBLE, I’ve never edged before but watching that movie must be what it feels like,” one wrote. “All buildup, relatively interesting, then it just…stops? No resolution, no ending, hardly any explanation, the movie just…stops? Hard pass on movies like that. “

Another added, “Leave the World Behind was mid unfortunately,” while a third person said, “Leave the World Behind was kinda lame tbh. Like nothing crazy actually happened considering it’s an end-of-the-world movie.”

Someone else wrote, “You need to fix the ending of Leave the World Behind. It was so tilting. So many questions left unanswered.”

Leave the World Behind was released on Netflix on Dec. 8, 2023. Based on Rumaan Alam’s 2020 novel of the same name, it follows two families who are forced to stay in the same house as the world around them erupts into pandemonium. Aside from Roberts, the movie also stars Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, Myha’la Herrold and Kevin Bacon.