Debra Granik knows how to film stories about marginalized groups (see Winter’s Bone), and Leave No Trace is no exception. The film is incredibly low-key, simple, and beautiful, with wonderful performances from Thomasin McKenzie and Ben Foster. It also dares to suggest that not every problem can be fixed (or should be?) by society or the many supposed safety networks put in place by government organizations. No one is demonized however, not the social workers for doing their job and…

It’s been awhile since I watched a film I didn’t like at all. And I’m trying to understand how I could dislike something so much that has a pretty good cast and a director with a short film under his belt that I really enjoyed. The DNA of that short resides somewhere in this mess of a film but it’s so incoherent in its story and purpose it’s hard to say where exactly it lives. Told in three separate timelines…