Mackenzie, a troubled but daring teenage girl, is sent by her struggling mother to live with her uncle in Juneau, Alaska. Although Uncle seems like a supportive caretaker and friend, the relationship turns and Mackenzie is forced to run. Trying to make her way back to Seattle alone to find her absent mother, Mackenzie only winds up deeper in the Alaskan interior. Lost and with no one else to turn to, she shadows a loner backpacker, Bartlett, an unlikely father figure with scars of his own. Together, they cross the wilderness and discover sanctuary in the last frontier.
Green explores an atypical relationship between a solitary, 50-something man who finds that a vulnerable but determined kid has attached herself to him, no matter what, as he sets off into the wild.
Purnell and Greenwood make the most of silence, discovering that much can be communicated through darting glances, weary movement and the slow buildup to a hopeful smile.
Bust Magazine
March 10, 2017
Wildlike is a little over 90-minutes, but feels like it's 180.
"Wildlike" is not a traditional Hollywood feel-good buddy road movie, but a semi-slow burn experience that takes its subject matter and characters seriously while unrolling the central relationship of the story in a refreshingly deliberate pace.
Frank Hall Green, directing his own script, maintains a poker-faced perspective, offering no hints as to where the story might lead and allowing scenes to unfold casually.