Written and Directed by India Donaldson | 89 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | VOD and Kanopy

Donaldson’s first feature could be considered smack in the middle of the genre somewhat derisively called “shoegaze.” It’s not terribly interested in plot. Instead, she tells a character-driven story of a teenaged girl, Sam (Lily Collias), her father, Chris (James Le Gros), and one of her father’s friends, Matt (Danny McCarthy), on a summery hiking trip into the woods.

The first act, really, is just Sam and Chris packing to go and then picking up Matt, the three of them establishing a vibe — two middle-aged men damaged and wallowing in self-pity around their failed relationships — and Sam missing her girlfriend back in the city and regularly having to manage her period with tampon applications. Chris and Matt bicker in the way old friends do, but both are terminally self-involved in a way that belies their age — you’d think by their age they might’ve found a way to be a little less so.

The father-daughter dynamic here couldn’t help but remind me of Debra Granik’s woodsy drama Leave No Trace, though this one isn’t concerned with issues around survival or suspense, just the quiet truths of generational conceit and change. Something happens on this trip that alters Sam’s perspective on her father, her father’s friend, and maybe all men of their generation . It also makes clear what power she has, and how she can exercise it. There’s a moment in the film’s last five minutes where there’s a shift, and Sam becomes an adult in the eyes of her father.

I won’t lie, the pace and lack of inciting incident in the first half of this piece tested my patience, but suddenly, and without much warning, I found myself invested. I’m glad I stuck with it. The performances all around are credibly lived-in, but it’s Collias, 19, who is asked to carry this feature.

Without much in the way of dialogue she does it with grace and an undeniable ease — her thoughts and emotions entirely clear through each breath, glance, and micro-expression.