Director Report Card: Destin Daniel Cretton (2013)

3. Short Term 12

While attending a university in San Diego, Destin Daniel Cretton worked for two years at a group home for at-risk teenagers. His experiences there inspired him to make a short film on the topic for his thesis project. “Short Term 12,” which ran about twenty-two minutes, would also be Cretton's first cinematic project without frequent collaborator Lowell Frank. It was well received and Cretton decided to develop the story into a feature length script. This circulated at various festivals, to critical acclaim, and it wasn't long before the project went in front of cameras again. Released in 2013, “Short Term 12” is the film that would really bring the filmmaker to people's attention. 

Grace is a supervisor at Short Term 12, a halfway house for troubled and abandoned teens. She instructs Nate, a new employee at the home, not to “become friends” with the residents but she's already broken that rule herself. She has a bond with Marcus, a young man who was sexually abused by his mother and is having trouble coping with his soon-to-be-18 status. Grace also soon forms a friendship with new arrival Jayden, who is moody and artistic. As she learns more about Jayden's disturbing problems, Grace has to confront an issue in her own life: She's pregnant, the father being co-worker and boyfriend Mason.

The original short film that inspired the feature is included on the DVD. The feature is very much an expansion of Cretton's first pass on this material. All the major events of the short are replicated here, right down to specific moments like a cupcake being weaponized or someone being confused upon seeing a bloody instrument. The biggest difference is the most obvious one: The main character in the short is a large, burly man named Denim. The main character in the feature is a woman, played by Brie Larson. While the feature spends way more time developing the life the protagonist has around their job, and expanding on their relationships with their young wards, this is very much an adaptation of the earlier story.

What most impressed me about “Short Term 12” is how keenly it understands the emotional states of the troubled teenagers. Among the various residents at the titular home is Sammy, a boy about 10 or 12. He's introduced running from the building, screaming his head off. The councilors do not treat this as an unusual experience, simply holding the boy down until he works it out of his system. This is far from the only emotional outburst we see in the film. Each time, the adults approach with sympathy and understanding, waiting for the children to calm down before attempting to talk out what's upsetting them. It reminds me of the temperamental boy Cretton documented in “Drakmar.” It also reminds me of myself at that age, a ball of volatile hormones and social anxieties exacerbated by undiagnosed neurodivergence.

I also fond value in the way “Short Term 12” depicts the bond between the councilors and their troubled wards. These relationships are founded on mutual respect. Discipline is only enforced when that respect is violated. Grace, Mason, and Nate listen to the kids' problems. They seek to understand their feelings and the complex motivations behind their actions. Grace and Jayden's bond begins with when they discover they are both interested in art, growing from there. Mason listens to Marcus' raps, which are a deep expression of the trauma he's felt. When so much about behavioral psychology is still misunderstood in pop culture, it's refreshing to see a film that focuses on how empathy plays the most vital role in the profession.

You can also see Destin Daniel Cretton's clear interest in family continuing to evolve. The children living at the halfway house have been abandoned or betrayed by their own family. In the makeshift social circles at Short Term 12, they find a new family of sorts. This is true of the councilors as well, as Grace and Mason share their own special bond. Yet this is also a movie about how family can mess us up too. The cruelties and mistakes of their parents still reverberate through their children and likely will their whole lives. Most of us carry wounds like that well into adulthood. 

Probably “Short Term 12's” biggest contribution to pop culture is being another step on Brie Larson's path to becoming a huge star. Before she won an Oscar and became a Marvel superhero, Larson made her name in dramatic indies like this. It's easy to see why she'd inevitably become an A-lister. Larson has an easy-going charm in many of her earlier scene, that shows an ideal comedic timing. The sharp dialogue she trades with Jayden, while the two are sketching together, makes the character likable without sacrificing the authority she brings to her leadership role. Larson also has a talent for making Grace's insecurities bubble towards the surface. A worried look on her face or stiff posture speaks volume. 

Yet there's a problem. In the original short, the male lead expressed a reluctance towards having a child. His reasoning behind this belief was that there was already enough fucked-up kids in the world... Before finding out his girlfriend is pregnant near the short's end. In the feature, we learn that Grace is pregnant early on. Her indecisiveness over whether to tell her boyfriend or not occupies about half the movie. As does her reluctance over admitting she's already made the appointment to abort the fetus. I'll admit, I didn't find any of this particularly compelling. Grace's feelings towards the impending child is never verbalized, as it was in the original short. For a long time, it just seems like this subplot is never going to connect with the main story in a meaningful way.

This is before a series of dramatic revelations in the last act. Grace learns the exact details of what Jayden's home life is like, via a powerful scene where she tells a metaphorical fairy tale about an octopus and a shark. Instead of letting that suffice, Grace nearly commits a crime. She then flatly explains that her own father was abusive, that he's about to get out of prison. The connection between her and the younger girl are made so obvious and similar that it feels contrived. When subtly and suggestion would've better served the movie, it instead lays all its cards down. These ideas could've lingered in the brain but the movie wants to provide a big, dramatic, cathartic conclusion instead. It all feels too neat, putting too fine a point upon the ideas the story is presenting.

At the same time, some parts of “Short Term 12” feel disconnected and underdeveloped. Marcus' story was the focus of the short film, the feature repeating most of the dramatic beats we saw there. Weirdly, there's little attempt to expand on this story arc here. Stranger still, Marcus' subplot never really connects with Grace's connection with Jayden. These two plot threads just exist next to each other, never really interacting and concluding without meeting one another. It's all-the-more frustrating because Marcus' story – a sexual abuse survivor still grappling with his trauma and terrified to enter the world, acting out in hopes of avoiding his entry into adulthood – is otherwise really compelling and interesting.

Brie Larson is not the only future star that had an early appearance here. LaKeith Stanfield – early enough in his career that he was just going by “Keith” – plays Marcus. He's the only actor to reappear from the short and his talent is still readily apparent. The scene where he performs a rap he's written about his childhood is extremely affecting. Rami Malek appears as Nate, showing a sincerity and naivety that suggests both his eagerness to help and his cluelessness on how to do it. A very young Kaitlyn Dever plays Jayden, a girl trying her best to express the pain and frustration she feels. Honestly, one of the few “Short Term 12” cast members who hasn't gone on to be a big name is John Gallagher Jr., as Mason. (Though he's gone on to a pretty solid career on stage and television.) He gives a totally sturdy, even cute, performance here as the dotting boyfriend. 

As his third feature, you can clearly see Destin Daniel Cretton's visual style as a filmmaker continuing to evolve. The documentary approach he displayed in “I Am Not a Hipster” is still present here. Multiple scenes have a handheld presentation to them, as if you are watching a documentary about a home like this. Yet this is definitely pushed too far in a few scenes, when the shakiness becomes overwhelming. You'll have to excuse me: Shaky-cam immediately bothers me, even when in service of adding verisimilitude to a low-key drama like this. Also, yes, there's an extended tracking shot of the main character traveling around on a bike too.

“Short Term 12” was enthusiastically received by critics. The film ranked high on a whole bunch of year-end list, receiving a number of awards from various voting bodies. When “Short Term 12” was entirely overlooked by the Academy Awards, enough people were pissed off that the movie's Wikipedia page includes a whole section entitled “Oscar snub.” I didn't love the movie that much. There are moments that are so well acted, so well observed emotionally. Yet the script lets the characters and their inner lives down some. It's still a movie absolutely worth seeking out, even if the writing could've been smoother. [Grade: B]