Sunday, 25 August 2019

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.

No comments:

Post a Comment

LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD

 To some people it's one of the enduring masterpieces of world cinema, to others one of the most boring films ever made and to some it...