Short Term 12 (***1/2)

A group home for troubled teens is the primary setting for this unsensationalized drama. It tells the story of the staff members, not many years older than those they supervise, but concentrates most on two, Grace (Brie Larson) and Mason (John Gallagher Jr.), who have a relationship outside of work. And it tells the stories of a few of the teens, but mostly an anti-social girl (Kaitlyn Dever) who’s just arrived.

This is a bit of a tearjerker at times, but is optimistic in its view that difficult childhoods can be overcome. This is the view that Grace, who is senior among the supervisors, takes. She speaks with the compassion of someone who’s been there, as indeed she has. Yet she still struggles to overcome her own difficult past as she also deals with an unplanned pregnancy.

Short Term 12 shares its title and setting with a 2008 short by its writer-director, Destin Cretton. He tells the story like someone who, like Grace, has been there.

IMDb link

viewed 9/25/13 7:15 pm at Ritz 5 and posted 9/25/13