Julia Roberts has a film in theaters right now, and I bet you haven’t heard of it. Netflix does this every year, they back their Oscar hopefuls, their one big holiday release (this year, Rebel Moon), and then they abandon everything else.
Leave the World Behind is one of the Netflix unloved, missing the big three fall festivals to premiere at AFI Fest instead, and then opening with little fanfare in limited theaters on November 22, before moving to Netflix on December 8. It’s written and directed by Sam Esmail, and besides Roberts, it stars Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, Kevin Bacon, and Myha’la Herrold, and it actually looks pretty good.
There was, at least, a special screening of Leave the World Behind in London last night, attended by Sam Esmail, Julia Roberts, and Myha’la Herrold, who looked super cute in a black minidress with a velvet bow detail. Julia, though, did what Julia does and showed up looking like every inch the Movie Star she is. Her hair is red, her smile is wide, her laugh echoes through photos! And she wore a really good outfit which is some sort of mini coatdress ensemble that is either a ruffled miniskirt or shorts, I can’t quite tell. But the blush color looks really good with her copper hair, and the mini whatever those are make her legs look great.
But then there are the shoes. The Fug Girls call this a “scroll down surprise”, when someone’s outfit takes a wild twist below the cut. I did not see these shoes coming! These are silver beaded fringe kitten heels, which is such an elaborately tacky sentence to type out. From the knees up Julia is The Most Intimidating Lady Who Lunches, from the knees down she is walking through some kind of space-time collapse where too many things are happening at once. Fringe AND beads! Kitten heels! It’s too much! It’s like Christmas tree tinsel threw up on her shoes and she didn’t have time to clean it off. The outfit says, “I am fabulous and capable of crushing you,” the shoes say, “I got dressed in the dark.” They’re so awful I kind of love them.
