Review of Leave No Trace (2018) by Dawdlingpoet — 22 Nov 2021

My initial reaction to the start of this film is that it very much reminded me of Captain Fantastic, which came out a few years ago. I find the plot interesting - the concept of people genuinely living out 'in the wild' so to speak. I thought it was quite an atmospheric watch and while the plot pace is quite slow and there's not a great amount of dialogue, I found it quite thought provoking, mainly in terms of it making me question how society rely on people living by their rules, or being judged harshly if not.

I could imagine what the father and daughter were thinking, at times in which their not speaking but clearly expressing themselves by way of body language. They are clearly very thoughtful people. I tried to imagine myself in their shoes, to think how I might regard modern society as someone previously living in the outskirts of it. Its a thinking persons film, I reckon. Not everyone will enjoy it, it might bore some, given there's no action scenes, no car chases etc. but as a character driven drama with some interesting themes (identity, privacy etc.), it was an intriguing and thoughtful watch. I also particularly liked the use of music in the background to add to the atmosphere in certain scenes - I imagine this would be worth seeing in a cinema if possible, for it does have a sort of mildly claustrophobic feel to it at times. Its one of those films which may well have you changing your mind about your opinions on the characters at different times in the plot but suffice to say things aren't entirely clear cut. There is also certain poignancy present. In any case, I didn't find it a boring film - I found it somewhat moving, if anything.