Ethan Hawke also stars in the AFI Fest opener, based on the suspense novel by Rumaan Alam.

Anyone who still needs convincing that we live in a fractured world may be startled by the futuristic nightmare drama Leave the World Behind, which had its world premiere at AFI Fest. Others might find something a bit stale in its portrait of racial suspicion and environmental catastrophe. Fine performances help to bolster a problematic picture written and directed by Sam Esmail, adapted from Rumaan Alam’s best-selling novel. The film will take its bow via Netflix in December, the streamer’s second release this year (after Rustin) that counts Barack and Michelle Obama among its executive producers.

Esmail, probably best known for writing and directing the TV series Mr. Robot, and who worked with Roberts on Amazon’s Homecoming, has studied a number of earlier movies. The scene on the beach serves up a variation on Jaws, with the tanker substituting for the shark. The picture also echoes Get Out, with its nightmarish vision of conflict between the races. The family is surprised in the evening by a knock at the door. Seeing a Black man and his adult daughter (Mahershala Ali and Myha’la) outside, Roberts’ Amanda barely tries to conceal her suspicion. The interlopers inform the white couple that they own the vacation house and fled their New York apartment because of a blackout in the city. Power is still working in the country, but television and cellphone service have been disrupted. Gradually, more nightmarish events unfold.

Late in the film, Kevin Bacon appears as some kind of survivalist with a huge American flag in front of his house and guns at the ready. He blames the “Koreans or Chinese” for threats to the American way of life. These political themes are rendered with a heavy hand by the filmmakers and carry few surprises.

As a nightmarish suspense drama about everyday life disintegrating, Esmail’s movie is sometimes effective, even while it echoes earlier films like The Road and David Koepp’s underrated 1996 thriller, The Trigger Effect. Esmail uses encroaching animals — a sinister herd of deer, a flock of flamingoes — with skill. A scene involving a crashing phalanx of empty Teslas is striking, and there’s a creepy scene in which teenage son Archie (Evans) finds his teeth falling out.

Performances are strong. Roberts has on occasion played unsympathetic characters, though these have been rare over the course of her long career. Here she is basically playing a Karen, a privileged white woman who makes little attempt to hide her mistrust and contempt for people who seem to be intruders in her privileged world. Gradually she does begin to see Ali’s homeowner as a three-dimensional character, and his performance is always riveting. Myha’la has a sassy, no-nonsense presence that also enriches the movie.