Writer/director Beth de Araújo’s Josephine (A) is an absolutely astonishing exploration of childhood trauma, parental fear and the dangers both rational and imagined that invade a family’s life. Eight-year-old Josephine witnesses a brutal assault while walking through Golden Gate Park with her father, and the crime’s reverberations gradually reshape her behavior, her sense of safety and her parents’ already contrasting approaches to raising her. Mason Reeves is an absolute revelation, conveying hypervigilance, confusion and simmering defiance with a naturalism far beyond her years. De Araújo’s tremendous commitment to Josephine’s point of view makes us question the parents’ choices while forcing us to consider how we as viewers might respond to the same impossible situation. Channing Tatum is effortlessly authentic as her father, while Gemma Chan delivers a quieter, more understated performance as her mother. Through a series of small but increasingly alarming escalations, the film captures how one heinous act can make danger feel omnipresent and turn ordinary childhood anxieties into consuming dread. Josephine’s journey is simultaneously disturbing and empowering as she struggles with defining and overcoming fears while discovering her own capacity for self-defense. Absorbing and sometimes devastating, the film finds flawed human beings searching for a way forward when innocence can no longer lead the way.