Thin

A superb study of anorexia in the Renfrew Center, a strict residential care home in Florida, this documentary is remarkable for the close, 24-hour access the director gained to her subjects over several months. It’s a proximity that offers a harrowing insight into the behaviour of several young women – teenagers and others in their 20s – trying with mixed success to overcome eating disorders. The film doesn’t avoid the ugliness of the anorexic personality – the women’s behaviour is defined by self-delusion and deceit – and doesn’t shy from showing how medical care seems to achieve little in these particular cases.