Review of Short Term 12 (2013) by Eric F — 12 Aug 2014

"Short Term 12" is an indie drama about the residents and employees of a foster care facility for 'troubled' teenagers. It stars actress, Brie Larson as Grace, who works at the facility and is a former foster home resident herself. Grace's life is becoming a bit of a scramble as our story begins: she's recently found out that she is pregnant by her boyfriend, there is a new girl named Jayden who's not making Grace's job any easier with her obstructive behavior, and the soon-to-be-of-age, Marcus is acting up in his final weeks at the center just adds to her frustration.

This film (both in terms of it's story and it's film-style) is a beautiful mess -- what I mean by that is, "Short Term 12" has so many characters and so many subplots going on all at once, that it seems like the entire thing should fall apart at the seams, but it stays together due to the seemingly effortless way in which the film is paced. "12" runs around the setting like a roller coaster, never allowing the viewer to get bored or to feel too rushed, it's found just the right speed at which to showcase each of these characters and their individual lives in a very fluid, free-forming way. It's a visual story that feels so real that you begin to think you are actually watching these people simply live their lives (or try to).

Special attention must also be drawn to Larson's performance, as well as Kaitlyn Dever's portrayal of Jayden -- the two separately make up some of the film's best acting, but together their chemistry on-screen makes for the best scenes in the entire movie (and possibly of the year 2013).

"Short Term 12" is what happens when you bring together a little bit of everything that makes any film decent, and wrap it up into one single, small package: you get a rowdy, tear-jerking, film festival award-winning, work of art -- and love and labor and loss. It's a character film that never forgets that it's character's have feelings of their own.