Leave No Trace (PG)

Our Screen 2 film for June will be Leave No Trace...

You know how Hollywood films like to ramp up the sentimentality and spell out in capital letters what you should feel - then completely miss the mark as a result? Well Leave No Trace is different. This father-daughter coming of age story gives its characters space to be real and totally believable, building to an emotional impact which is both overwhelming and perfectly understated. If you despair of shallow, breathless action movies – then this is the antidote.

Tom is a teenage girl (a stunning performance by Kiwi newcomer Thomasin McKenzie) who lives off-grid in the forests of the Pacific Northwest with her dad Will (Ben Foster). The pair are expert survivalists and devoted to each other, seemingly content to keep apart from society. But the authorities have other ideas and the plot follows Tom and Will as they struggle, with the help of a succession of kind strangers, to find a way of life that works for them. We slowly learn why they can’t live like a ‘normal’ family and Tom gradually realises that she must make the hardest decision of her life.

Director Debra Granik is a consummate story teller, which you will know if you saw her previous film Winter’s Bone. Leave No Tracetopped all the critics’ best films of 2018 lists, but was completely overlooked by the Oscars. We think it’s brilliant and it was a travesty that Granik was ignored on the all-male shortlist for Best Director this year.

"Leave No Trace is one of the best films of 2018 and promises to make a star of McKenzie."  David Sims, The Atlantic

"[Thomasin McKenzie] is a massive find. There is such wisdom in her presence...You can feel her seeing everything and taking it all in. There's such a naturalism to the way she responds in every single situation." Christy Lemire, What the Flick?!

Tickets cost £4 for adults and £2 for under 18s, and are available online now or in advance from Watts Trading or on the door if not already sold out.