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Movies that feel like Leave No Trace (2018)

If you loved Leave No Trace, the closest films we have are Boyhood (2014), Like Father, Like Son (2013) and The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012). All three share Leave No Trace's contemplative and wistful feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 8 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Netflix, Philo and AMC Plus Apple TV channel and others, checked against today's data.

A father and daughter live a perfect but mysterious existence in Forest Park, a beautiful nature reserve near Portland, Oregon, rarely making contact with the world. But when a small mistake tips them off to authorities, they are sent on an increasingly erratic journey in search of a place to call their own.

πŸ… 100% Rotten Tomatoesβ˜… 7.1 IMDb β†—TMDB β†—dir. Debra Granikcontemplativewistful
Stream it:Cinemax β†—

When is Leave No Trace streaming? β†’

If Leave No Trace hit the spot, these will too

Boyhood poster
Boyhood
2014 Β· dir. Richard Linklater
πŸ… 97%β˜… 7.9drama

Growing up sits at the heart of each

The film tells a story of a divorced couple trying to raise their young son. The story follows the boy for twelve years, from first grade at age 6 through 12th grade at age 17-18, and examines his relationship with his parents as he grows.

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Like Father, Like Son poster
Like Father, Like Son
2013 Β· dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda
πŸ… 86%β˜… 7.8drama

Contemplative where it counts, wistful underneath

Ryota Nonomiya is a successful businessman driven by money. He learns that his biological son was switched with another child after birth. He must make a life-changing decision and choose his true son or the boy he raised as his own.

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The Perks of Being a Wallflower poster
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
2012 Β· dir. Stephen Chbosky
πŸ… 85%β˜… 7.9drama

Both built around trauma

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1991. High school freshman Charlie is a wallflower, always watching life from the sidelines, until two senior students, Sam and her stepbrother Patrick, become his mentors, helping him discover the joys of friendship, music and love.

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Mysterious Skin poster
Mysterious Skin
2005 Β· dir. Gregg Araki
πŸ… 86%β˜… 7.6drama

The same preoccupation in both: post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd)

A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.

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Aftersun poster
Aftersun
2022 Β· dir. Charlotte Wells
πŸ… 95%β˜… 7.6drama

Growing up is the engine of both

Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier. Memories fill the gaps between camcorder footages as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the troubled man she didn't.

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Dead Poets Society poster
Dead Poets Society
1989 Β· dir. Peter Weir
πŸ… 85%β˜… 8.1drama

Both trade on stillness more than on being drama

The difference: A 1980s film, from a different era of filmmaking

At an elite, old-fashioned boarding school in New England, a passionate English teacher inspires his students to rebel against convention and seize the potential of every day, courting the disdain of the stern headmaster.

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If I Stay poster
If I Stay
2014 Β· dir. R.J. Cutler
πŸ… 36%β˜… 6.7drama

Both keep circling back to teenage girl

The difference: Critics were much harder on this one

Mia Hall, a talented young cellist, thought the most difficult decision she would ever have to make would be whether to pursue her musical dreams at prestigious Juilliard or follow her heart to be with the love of her life, Adam, a rock singer/guitarist. However, a car wreck changes everything in an instant, and now Mia's life hangs in the balance. Suspended between life and death, Mia faces a choice that will decide her future.

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The Book Thief poster
The Book Thief
2013 Β· dir. Brian Percival
πŸ… 50%β˜… 7.5drama

Contemplative drama in both cases

The difference: Missing the wistfulness of Leave No Trace

While subjected to the horrors of WWII Germany, young Liesel finds solace by stealing books and sharing them with others. Under the stairs in her home, a Jewish refugee is being sheltered by her adoptive parents.

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Moonlight poster
Moonlight
2016 Β· dir. Barry Jenkins
πŸ… 98%β˜… 7.4drama

Cut from the same drama cloth

The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality.

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Lion poster
Lion
2016 Β· dir. Garth Davis
πŸ… 84%β˜… 8drama

The same drama instincts

A five-year-old Indian boy gets lost on the streets of Calcutta, thousands of kilometers from home. He survives many challenges before being adopted by a couple in Australia; 25 years later, he sets out to find his lost family.

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Roma poster
Roma
2018 Β· dir. Alfonso CuarΓ³n
πŸ… 96%β˜… 7.6drama

Both are drama through and through

In 1970s Mexico City, two domestic workers help a mother of four while her husband is away for an extended period of time.

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The Social Network poster
The Social Network
2010 Β· dir. David Fincher
πŸ… 96%β˜… 7.8drama

Drama approached the same way

In 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programmer Mark Zuckerberg begins work on a new concept that eventually turns into the global social network known as Facebook. Six years later, Mark is one of the youngest billionaires ever, but his unprecedented success leads to both personal and legal complications when he ends up on the receiving end of two lawsuits, one involving his former friend.

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In the mood for more contemplative?

all contemplative movies β†’

The best-reviewed films that share Leave No Trace's defining feeling.