The best part of working as a film critic is discovering movies that make you feel something you didn’t expect, those films linger in your mind and occupy your thoughts for weeks or months after you’ve seen them. When a movie like that comes from a major new talent, it’s likely comparable to an 's adrenaline rush when they win a gold medal. That’s the precise feeling I got when I watched , a coming-of-age drama from first-time writer-director India Donaldson, featuring an exquisite turn from Lily Collias.
There are plenty of reasons is such an enriching experience, but the moment that confirms it may just be the most shocking and remarkable scene of the year. What’s special about this scene in is its subtlety. Often the year’s most dramatic or astonishing sequences focus on extremeness, like a truly epic slow-motion walk from a massive explosion, a major plot twist and/or dramatic revelation, or the utterly bonkers and disgustingly hysterical scene from 2022’s .
There’s usually loud music and rapid editing, with every trick in the filmmaking book used to telegraph how remarkable what you’re watching is. But the pivotal moment in India Donaldson’s comes so suddenly and naturally—there’s no rumbling score or build-up to the moment—that it just feels refreshingly real. And devastating.
Some context: follows 17-year-old Sam (Lilly Collias) as she goes on a camping trip with her dad Chris (James Le Gros) and his friend Matt (Danny McCarthy). Matt’s son .