In cinema, we tend to assume that life-changing moments will be seismic – “white-knuckle scenes of heightened drama that shift the very axis of reality”, said Wendy Ide in The Observer. But in her “quietly devastating” debut feature, India Donaldson suggests that “the events that shift the direction of our lives” can be so slight as to go almost unnoticed.
The film stars Lily Collias (remarkable, in her first lead role) as 17-year-old Sam, who is roped into joining her downbeat divorced dad Chris (James Le Gros) and his best buddy Matt (Danny McCarthy) on a hiking trip in the Catskills. Matt’s son was supposed to have come too, but has dropped out, leaving Sam alone with the two middle-aged men. At first, it all goes well: she puts up with their “banter and bickering”, and simply rolls her eyes when it veers a bit too close to misogyny for her taste. But then comes the “incident”: an “off-hand, off-colour” remark by Matt that leaves her visibly shaken, and sets in motion a devastating “domino effect of disappointments” when her father fails to come to her defence.
In this beautifully crafted film, Donaldson tenderly captures the experience of a teenage girl, said Aimee Ferrier in Far Out, while sharply exploring the fraught relationship between two insecure, disappointed men.
Nothing much happens, said Kevin Maher in The Times. The film is all “dramatic subtlety and delicate character arcs”, yet it is “intensely compelling”, and “somehow makes complete emotional sense”. The main draw, however, is Collias, whose “wordless reaction shots are so full of careworn internal conflict… she effectively authors the mood of the movie”.
India Donaldson’s ‘quietly devastating’ debut feature about a teenage girl’s life-changing camping trip
