Destin Cretton's bruising new narrative feature, Short Term 12, shunts the viewer into the grim and frazzled world of a group foster home for at-risk teenagers. Serving as a cinderblock way station for troubled adolescents, the titular facility is examined principally through the eyes of resolute twentysomething supervisor Kate (Brie Larson). Accustomed to stony aloofness, prickly attitudes, and violent outbursts from her charges, Kate is the sort of indefatigable caregiver who makes every new arrival into a personal cause. Fortunately, she has a stalwart partner in the scruffy and affable Mason (John Gallagher Jr.), an equally devoted member of the staff—and Kate's not-so-secret boyfriend.
Short Term 12 presents a glimpse into the group home at a pointedly transitional moment. A guileless college student (Rami Malek) begins an internship just as black-clad self-harmer Jayden (Kaitlyn Dever) arrives and longtime resident Marcus (Keith Stanfield) sullenly prepares for the departure mandated by his 18th birthday. Other teens shuffle at the periphery of the story, affirming the sense that the depicted events represent but a narrow slice of the simmering angst, explosive conflicts, and weary second chances that characterize daily life in the facility.
Writer-director Cretton and his performers strike an estimable balance between setting and character. The film functions as both a study of the foster care world and a portrait of the unreserved and quietly vexed Grace. The story sputters along in spots—Cretton adapted the film from an earlier short, and it shows—and at times the plot takes turns that seems more obligatory than realistic. On balance, however, Short Term 12 is an affecting and generous work of filmmaking. It's a modest contender in a year that has featured stunning depictions of adolescent life in the moving documentary Only the Young and the gorgeous, abstracted Pavilion.
