‘Leave No Trace’ Review: Love Under Siege

Debra Granik, the director of ‘Winter’s Bone,’ returns with another feature about family bonds, this time about a father and daughter living off the grid.

Watch a clip from the movie ‘Leave No Trace,’ starring Thomasin McKenzie. Photo: Bleecker Street Media

A father and daughter make their way through the lush greenery of a rainforest. He’s intense, almost haunted. She, in her early teens, seems serene. What are they doing? Living there, it turns out—off the grid and in hiding, as they have been for years. The first few minutes of “Leave No Trace” are as entrapping as the spider webs the camera notices in passing. They catch you up in a suspenseful wilderness tale that opens out to an urgent drama of conflict, beauty and growth.

The director, Debra Granik, made a stunning feature...