“Short Term 12” evokes realistic emotion
Grace (Brie Larson, “The Spectacular Now,” “Don Jon”) and her boyfriend, Mason (John Gallagher Jr., “The Newsroom”), work at a foster care facility in “Short Term 12.” All of the youth have dysfunctional families and emotional problems.
Some of the counselors, like Grace and Mason, were once in foster homes and had unstable childhoods. Grace has serious issues connecting with other people, especially Mason. At the facility, she does form a bond with a young girl, Jayden (Kaitlyn Dever, “The Spectacular Now”), who may or may not have been abused by her father.
The film opens with a new counselor, Nate (Rami Malek, “The Pacific,” “The Master”), coming to work at the center. His character is a way of introducing the center and the children without being overly expository.
“Short Term 12,” the screenwriting and directorial debut of Destin Cretton, has a docu-drama feel that makes its performances and dialogue extremely realistic and powerful. In its most intimate scenes, the film is so emotionally raw that it is almost hard to watch.
The two most potent scenes show the children reciting their writing to a counselor. Keith Stanfield, in his first feature film role, plays Marcus, one of the oldest teenagers, who is about to leave the center. He raps lyrics he wrote, and it is all captured in one long shot. Later in the film, Jayden reads Grace a children’s story she wrote and illustrated.
These scenes are absolutely heartbreaking and successfully capture the power of the film.
It is tragic that these children get dumped at the center and begin their preteen and teenage years in a regimented institution. The counselors do their best to make them feel loved and wanted, but they also have to maintain a certain distance. Even if the children’s time at the center feels like an eternity, it is only a couple of years out of their lives.
It is a critical time, though, and the short 96-minute film exposes their pain, anger and frustration. In the beginning, the film is disheartening, but it is ultimately exhilarating and life-affirming.
No big-name actors star in this low-budget indie drama, but that makes it all the more effective.
Brie Larson gives a complex performance, making her character flawed but sympathetic. Sometimes, the other characters and the audience want to shake her and tell her to get her life together, but then hug her and cry with her.
Kaitlyn Dever possibly gives the film’s best performance, because she is able to say so much, even through a character that rarely expresses her feelings. Jayden, with her repressed emotions and insecurities, fully encapsulates the state of all the children at the center.
The fly-on-the-wall aesthetic of the film is created with handheld shots. At times, the camerawork is too wobbly for its own good and distracts from the drama.
In the opening scene, Mason tells an embarrassing story to the other counselors, but the camera is unnecessarily shaky. Other scenes, like many of those between the children and the adults, are perfectly shot, with a light wavering of the camera that builds the tension of their interactions.
Indie dramas, especially debuts, do not come much better than this.
Although the subject matter is upsetting, the film is a fulfilling portrait of youth and young adults that features some of the most shattering scenes of the year.