Short Term 12 begins with a rambling story about soiling yourself in public which ends, after a few roundabout turns, in suicide. That sets the tone for the film about a care home for troubled teenagers, which admirably steers a path between tragedy and comedy, reaching a point that is neither saccharine or dour but instead gently life-affirming. It’s a minor miracle, not just for what it pulls off, but also who pulls it off. Everywhere you turn in this tiny film (it was made for $400,000 and earned $2.3 million), there is a future star: Oscar winners, weirdo heartthrobs, comic superstars.
Brie Larson is Grace, the steadfast supervisor of Short Term 12, the house for unsettled young people, who must leave when they turn 18. Grace is an assured presence, though she must face demons from her past and another urgent dilemma: she is pregnant with her boyfriend and colleague Mason (John Gallagher Jr.). There is Lakeith Stanfield as Marcus, a teenager on the brink of his 18th birthday and desperate for a buzzcut. Kaitlyn Dever is incoming troublemaker Jayden, trailed by self-sabotage and a distant dad. Rami Malek is the good-natured but uncertain new staff member, Nate. Stephanie Beatriz is Jessica, another carer at Short Term 12. In short, it is a murderer’s row of casting, credit for that goes to casting directors Kerry Barden, Rich Delia and Paul Schnee. One imagines their office is wallpapered with Short Term 12 film posters.
The running theme – that children teach us as much as we teach them – is universal and easy enough to digest, though it is always anchored to specific moments, which have the ring of real life. Sure enough director and writer Destin Daniel Cretton worked at a home for at-risk teenagers, and some of those experiences (which he wrote into his journal) – such as a father’s failure to pick his kid up on their birthday – made it into the film. The film started off as a 22-minute short in 2008; five years later, it debuted at South by Southwest, winning the Grand Jury and Audience Awards for a narrative feature. It is a simple, sensitively worn film which you enjoy while watching, but resonates powerfully in the days, perhaps even weeks, that follow. It is a deeply 2013 film, with dancing under flickering lights and pensive bicycle rides, as comforting as a photo of a flat white, filtered unironically by a sepia tinge, and posted on Instagram to amass 12 likes.
It is not hard to find films like Short Term 12, which deal with adolescent unhappiness and provide a gentle uplift, but its perspective, always at the children’s level but never patronising, does feel rare. And whenever it errs into cliché, there is Larson’s performance as anchor. She is never less than captivating: all soft edges and hard centre, both at odds with the world and those closest to her. Cretton’s script serves her well, but really it’s Larson’s face that captures the hardship, joy and heartbreak involved with life in and around the care facility.
Life is not a competition, but Hollywood is. Who has done best from Short Term 12? Larson won the Oscar for Best Actress three years later for kidnapping flick Room, though many fans of Short Term 12 believe that this is the film that earned her the nomination (and presumably win). Three years after her, Malek won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody. Outside of awards, Stanfield has probably earned the coolest status, cutting a memorable path through Judas and the Black Messiah, The Harder They Fall and in the music video for SZA’s “Shirt” (starring in an acclaimed popstar’s video is one of the cooler acting jobs). Dever, meanwhile, has starred in a number of teenage dramas, always elevating the work. Nowhere is that clearer than in Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart where she stars as one half of a nerdy school duo on the verge of college and breakdowns. Beatriz is most well known for her part in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, but she’s landed on the big screen again in In the Heights (in person) and in Encanto (voicing Mirabel). That is a good effort from everyone involved. Perhaps, to channel the film’s generous spirit, we give everyone a medal for participation.
You can watch ‘Short Term 12’ on Amazon Prime Video
Henry Wong is a senior culture writer at Esquire, working across digital and print. He covers film, television, books, and art for the magazine, and also writes profiles.
