Leave No Trace
Description
“Everything’s different now”, says teenager Tom (Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie, a revelation) to her dad Will (Ben Foster) after they are forcibly removed from the Oregon state park where they’ve been living and are pressured to live more conventionally. In this masterful portrait of people and communities living off the grid, Granik (Winter’s Bone, Festival 2010) unfolds the many ways in which Tom is torn between her powerful bond with her dad and the lure of new relationships.
“Leave No Trace‘s humane worldview is enriched by the film’s many loving details, its gorgeous imagery, its aching score by Dickon Hinchliffe. Granik works simply, but she doesn’t forego artistry. She’s made a film of grace and power, a story of people lost and found in America that often shows us at our noble and humble best. How rare and refreshing that is these days.” – Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair
“Though the narrative is built around conflict — one person’s desire for isolation clashing with another’s craving for community — its quietly wrenching power stems not from any sense of right versus wrong, but from Granik’s ability to make you understand both people. The filmmaker has crafted an unusual coming-of-age tale, in which a teen declares independence from her parent gradually, gingerly, with tact and consideration rather than rebelliousness.” – Jon Frosch, The Hollywood Reporter
Debra Granik made her feature debut with Down to the Bone (2004), for which she won the Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival and which was nominated for the John Cassavetes Independent Spirit Award. Her next feature Winters Bone (Narrative Feature Audience Award, Festival 2010) won the Grand Jury Prize and Waldo Scott Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture. “I think sometimes, the subject matters I do are not very commercial, so they’re not easy shoo-ins,” she says of the challenge she faces in making films about the struggles of downtrodden people. “It takes a bold financier to stand up and figure out what kind of work they’d like to see in the buffet.” (Vulture)
Film Details
Language English
Year 2018
Runtime 108
Country USA
Director Debra Granik
Producer Anne Harrison, Linda Reisman, Anne Rosellini
Writer Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini
Editor Jane Rizzo
Cinematographer Michael McDonough
Music Dickon Hinchliffe
Cast Ben Foster, Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie, Jeff Kober