Leave No Trace is Stunning, A+

Heartbreaking, extremely emotional, beautiful, and uplifting, Leave No Trace is one of those films that will stick with you for many years to come. Lead by an incredible first performance by actress Thomas McKenzie, Leave No Trace is a modern day Into The Wild that every nature and movie lover should watch alike and will greatly enjoy from beginning to end.

Once in a while there's a film that comes along that will shake you from inside out. Leave No Trace is is one of those films. However, despite there being several heart breaking moments in the movie, there's more of an uplifting tale here than meets the eye. The director of Winter's Bone returns with a film that's just as chilling and captivating as her first film, and like Winter's Bone, it stars a break out performance by an actress who has an extremely bright future ahead of her.

No one has ever heard of Thomasin mcKenzie. But in a few years, she'll be the next Jennifer Lawrence in Hollywood. Her acting at her young age almost is a reminder of how brilliant Lawrence was during Winter's Bone, and in a way, the two films are eerily similar, despite being complete differant stories. But make no mistake. Even though Ben Foster was brilliant in his role in the film, McKenzie at least deserves an Oscar nomination all by herself, which is saying a lot for someone's first performance. She's absolutely brilliant whenever she's on screen, and you are rooting for her withint he first five minutes of the film, and that is what acting is all about.

Besides Mckenzie's performance, the movie it self is near perfect. In fact, by the end of it, despite it being an average time of two hours, you want more of it. You want to find out more of that happened to the story, and however sad the ending might be, you'll be walking away extremely satisfied.
The movie is beautifully directed by Debra Granik, who's vision of the wilderness that showed in Winter's Bone is repeated in Leave No Trace.

The cinematography is a highlight of the film, with beautiful shots of the woods of the Oregon forest with actors Ben and Thomasin. The sound track, although limited as it is, fits in with the movie as well.
In short, there's nothing wrong with the film, and there's nothing that can improve it.
As much as it's a story revolving around a father and his daughter, it's also a story about survival, about veterans, and about the American Wilderness. It's a shadow of films like White Fang and Into the Wild but at the same time has much more human connection than either.

Leave No Trace will stay with you for a long time, and it's one of the better films to have been released in the past few years, and should be a show in for best movie, best actress, and best director for the 2019 Oscar Race.

A+