DIRECTED BY

Destin Daniel Cretton

STARRING

Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr., Stephanie Beatriz, Rami Malek, Alex Calloway, Kevin Hernandez, Lydia Du Veaux, LaKeith Stanfield, Frantz Turner and Kaitlyn Dever

BUDGET / BOX OFFICE EARNINGS

$0.9m / $1.6m (worldwide)

AWARDS

None

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A twenty-something supervising staff member of a residential treatment facility navigates the troubled waters of that world alongside her co-worker and longtime boyfriend.

Written and directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, this is the feature adaptation of his 2008 short of the same name. Set in Short Term 12, a foster-care facility for at-risk teenagers, we follow Grace Howard who works as a supervisor at the facility, trying to do her best for the kids who have often been removed from the worst kind of home situations, but she has her own issues and finds it difficult to open up emotionally. When Jayden Cole becomes a new arrival at the facility, her story begins to reopen old wounds for Grace, forcing her to make some difficult decisions.

This was a film that I only watched due to word of mouth through a few members of the respective community and I’m glad to have listened to them (and continue to do so) as I find Short Term 12 to be a captivating drama from writer/director Destin Daniel Cretton, with some lovely cinematography work by Brett Palwak. While it primarily focuses on Grace, overall the film has a strong ensemble with a host of talent that have gone on to do great things, such as John Gallagher Jr., LaKeith Stanfield, Stephanie Beatriz and Rami Malek. Grace is a defined, three-dimensional character that is tough yet compassionate, and while she’s willing to charge in to help these at-risk teens with their issues, she has difficulty in dealing with her own, and Brie Larson brings a lot of heart and vulnerability with her performance as Grace. Another notable performance is Kaitlyn Dever as Jayden Cole, she’s great as the character and it’s easy to see why she exploded onto the scene as she did between this and her role on Justified.

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FAVOURITE SCENE

Originally in the previous edition of this list I gave a certain scene, but upon repeated viewing, I always feel more impacted by Marcus’s rap he shares with Mason.

FAVOURITE QUOTE

“Yep I know the rules: no belts, no razors, no scissors, no fucking freedom.

No cussing. 

Shit, I forgot about that one.” – Jayden and Grace

DID YOU KNOW?

While most of the children were cast through open casting calls, LaKeith Stanfield was the only actor to return from the original short film (which was released in 2008). Director Destin Daniel Cretton had struggled to reach Stanfield during the casting as he had quit acting and did not have a cell phone.