"LEAVE NO TRACE"......AT LONG LAST, BQ FINDS AN INDIE THAT'S A REAL MOVIE.........

Leave No Trace  (2018)   We swore to go cold turkey on film festival independent films.......

                We couldn't possibly punch out another ranting post about how much we hated the puffed-up pseudo artistry of yet another navel-contemplating director who's desperate for a pat on the head from film festival juries........

                 Then we stumbled upon this movie........a breath of fresh air, a simple story told freshly, keeping us intrigued from beginning to end..

                   Not surprisingly, it comes from director Debra Granik, whose "Winter's Bone" displayed the same quiet, spare visual style.......(and made an instant star out of Jennifer Lawrence.....)

                     First thing to love.......that amazing MVP of independent films, Ben Foster, once again inhabiting the role he plays to unnerving perfection.  In this film, he's Will,  a severely PTSD-damaged vet taken to living off the grid (as in.....the woods) with his 13 year old daughter Tom (Thomasin McKenzie).

                    Father and daughter eventually run afoul of the authorities, who won't tolerate squatters on public land. Captured and swept into the social services bureaucracy, Tom warms to living in a structured society, but Will's too far cut off and alienated from humanity to interact with anyone other than himself and his daughter.

                     Moving and modest in its storytelling, the film's dramatic power tends to sneak up on you in its individual moments. And unlike so many film festival phonies, director Granik never calls attention to herself........she single-mindedly concentrates on her characters and their story..

                     And that's why "Leave No Trace" left a big impression on us.......4 stars (****). What a joy not to have to spend time plucking out what's worthy in an otherwise unwatchable indie. Here's one that 's the real deal......all of it's worthy.