LEAVE NO TRACE

Homelessness takes on a whole new meaning in Debra Granik's magnificent new film "Leave No Trace". Ben Foster and Thomasin McKenzie are brilliant as a father and his teenage daughter who choose to live wild in the woods until one day they are found and forced to conform. I mean, who would want to live as a modern day Thoreau when you can have a nice new modern home? Based on Peter Rock's novel 'My Abandonment' this is a film of real intelligence and insight, not afraid to be funny when it needs to be but also deeply moving, both a character study and a picture of an America we rarely see. It's like a Malick movie but one that moves with a somewhat greater speed and with none of the pretentious we sometimes associate with Malick. Indeed this is one of the most heartfelt films I have seen in a very long time and one of the greatest father/daughter movies in all of American cinema. Beautifully written, directed and acted down to the smallest part it's the kind of film that really deserves a mass audience and a fistful of awards.