Short Term 12 shows everything in a film that an audience could want from a clever independent feature. As if the setting of a care home for underprivileged children connected to your heart, pulling you right in, and you let it. This is director Destin Daniel Cretton’s second feature, following I Am Not A Hipster.
Short Term 12 follows Grace, the leader of the care home and her boyfriend, Mason. Both of these characters are realistic and likeable, not just for the fact that their job is noble, but these characters are as flawed as those that they care for – the only difference is that they’ve overcome their pain, carrying their scars metaphorically and literally – their true to live observations and reactions to the events that occur to them over the cinematic experience is what makes them relatable.
Grace and Manson are not the only notable characters in this feature. Many films that take place in such a socially important theme are too wrapped up in character development or interesting events, so it is a relief that Short Term 12 follows the lives of the children who live in the facility. None of these characters are tropes, they are portraits of people who suffer in society: children with mental health issues, anger issues and those that have been abused.
Two of these children that appear truly unique in the film are Marcus, a seventeen year-old boy whom is about to be too old to stay in the facility and go back out into the abusive world, scared that he will repeat the same lifestyle as his parents, and Jayden a troubled teenager whom has been in and out of various care homes, but finds solace in the relatability and empathy that Grace shows. As the story progresses Marcus has to come to the realization that he is control of his destiny, and Jayden begins to show Grace the reason why she acts out and her abusive childhood, the childhood that sabotages any chance of happiness, the one that exists behind the ideal lifestyle that Jayden is expected to have.
Like other independent films such as Little Miss Sunshine and Juno, Short Term 12 boasts a lot of heart. Underneath the excellently written story, acting and direction, everything comes full circle. What begins in the story ends and wraps around completely, with lives and arcs forming and finishing so the audience isn’t left wondering but is left content at the end of the experience. Like all great films, this boasts not only an impressive effort by the director and a sign of good things to come, but a reminder of what the world is truly like. Short Term 12 paints a picture of the world in a realistic way, reminding us that bad things happen, and that those bad things will haunt us for as long as we let them, until we decide to move forward and let go. Better yet, it reminds us that there are good people out in the world, and that we can help those around us.
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