I want to talk about everything that happens in this film, but I guarantee you haven't seen it, so I'll write a spoiler free section at the top here and for those of you who managed to find a way to see it, scroll to the bottom for my spoiler filled section.
Spoiler-Free
Okay so you haven't seen it, I'll forgive you for now. If you've stumbled here by accident wanting to see me vent my sexual frustration, sorry but you'll have to wait for next week. If you're here because you consider yourself a cinephile (it means you like movies, get that thought out of your head you sick pedophile), then make yourself a cup of coffee, pause whatever music you have in the background, and listen the fuck up.
Fuck clichés. Short Term 12 is an experience. A film is something you know you're watching, at any point you can take a step back and say "this isn't real". With Short Term 12, the writing, and especially the acting (oh my god the acting!) keep you engrossed to the point where you can't step back; even though you'll want to, because this film is more depressing than a litter of HIV-positive puppies being thrown off a bridge by a holocaust survivor.
I haven't even mentioned who's in this fucking thing. Brie Larson plays Grace; the supervisor of the home and our main character. She was the chick Jonah Hill pedophilically kissed in 21 Jump Street. She fucking kills it. There's secondary scenes that have nothing to do with the group home at all, and she manages to make us care about them almost more than anything else. Her relationship with John Gallagher Jr is also so sincerely written and acted out that you imagine they were together during filming (they were not). John Gallagher hasn't been in anything significant besides a few episodes of Law n Order, but I imagine his agent got busier after this. He plays Mason, the most every-man man to ever grace a screen. He's not boring mind you, he just doesn't have that otherworldly wit or clumsy charm that every other male in cinema seems to overflow with. He's just a dude. He tells funny stories and has a rocking beard. Their relationship serves as the B-story to the goings-on in the home but as I said, it's so brilliantly pulled off that you start to care more about them than you do the kids; which totally makes you a terrible person.
There are other caretakers, but they're mostly pushed to the side so lets talk about the residents of Short Term 12 (the home, not the movie). The big story that gets pushed is the newcomer Jayden, but we'll get to that. The story of Marcus, a 17 year old who is about to leave the home is fucking gut punching. He's older, and although it's never outright said, they imply that he's seen more of the outside world than the younger kids. The first half of the film focusses on him turning 18 and "graduating" the home. Without spoiling anything, you get shown what he feels about it and why he has a much more depressing disposition on life than anyone else there. It will make you thankful for what you have; and that's all I'll say about that.
Next up is Jayden. A newcomer to the home who thankfully doesn't serve as the clueless protagonist who provides the audience with exposition. I watched the film about a week ago, so I can't for sure remember, but Short Term 12 isn't her first home, and it's brilliant to see her accustom to the environment so quickly; even though it's pretty depressing on second thought. She has great chemistry with Grace and without spoiling anything, their story arc is more than satisfying (even if it is a TINY bit unbelievable).
The interesting thing about the film is that while there is a build-up and a climax, it never feels like a conventional story. Things just happen, and the film ends. Jayden's story arc is used for the climax of the film, but it only affects Grace. It's a nice way of breaking convention while still feeling like it had a place in the film.
The interesting thing about the film is that while there is a build-up and a climax, it never feels like a conventional story. Things just happen, and the film ends. Jayden's story arc is used for the climax of the film, but it only affects Grace. It's a nice way of breaking convention while still feeling like it had a place in the film.
This film doesn't hold back, while you won't see any of the horrific stuff these kids have been through, they make sure you know about it and that you feel it. It's one thing for a comedy to be good at making you laugh or a sad film to make you cry, but the mark of good writing comes when a film can make you do both. Granted the film is more about the crying and the humour is framed within the dark reality the rest presides in, but it's there at the right times. The best scenes of the film (minus the Grace and Mason scenes) are when the film is most dark or when it's most upbeat. Not to say the rest is filler, but a gut punch will always be the most memorable part of a story; physically or figuratively. I feel like I'm rambling now. Go watch the film. If you struggle to find it or are too lazy, maybe I'll lend you my copy if I like you.
Now onto the spoilers. DO NOT READ FURTHER UNLESS YOU'VE SEEN THE FILM
I'M SERIOUS
STOP BEING A DICK
OKAY FINE
SPOILERS AHEAD
First off, how fucking awesome was that right? I don't want to just have a spoiler-filled version of the last section. Instead, I want to talk about some scenes and characters that frankly, deserve to be talked about.
Lets start off with Marcus and Mason. That rap.
There isn't a specific scene I want to talk about here, just their chemistry. It's evident that while Marcus doesn't see Grace as a friend like he does with Mason, the fact that she doesn't immediately give him up about the weed shows that she understands him and that they have common ground. While Mason seems to represent Marcus' youth, Grace is his age, forcing him to mature and come to terms with his life. The fact that he's older than his house mates does contribute to their bond, but you can tell that Grace has had her fair share of less than favourable decisions, and this helps her relate to Marcus. The reason I bring this up is that none of this is explicitly told to the audience. It's done in ways that would make sense in real life. Someone who used to smoke weed would be more inclined to talk to a pot-user rather than just ratting him out immediately. With all that being said though, she still understands that she's responsible for him, and something tells me should would be less inclined to let him spew out a rap filled with swear words. Again, none of this is said, and it's what makes this movie so goddamn interesting. You can speculate about the characters on your own, There aren't any questions left unanswered, just believable characters that you can talk about like they're people you know.
Let's talk about Jayden and to an extent, Grace.
Goddamn. Talk about execution meets intention. Without needing a lengthy exposition dump where one character would explain things that they already know to each other, we know everything about this kid, and it's way more than we bargained for. Behind all the fucks and the bitches, there's a story here. A sad story of an abused kid who had to sling drugs before he hit puberty. You can tell he acknowledges his mother but he rejects to accept her as such. It's subtle storytelling,one of my personal favourite things to see. On top of the story, towards the end where he says "I'm stronger than you", it shows that he's ready to move on. He wants to put it behind him and function normally in society. It also lets us in on Mason and Marcus' relationship. Marcus acknowledges that Mason is an authority when he comments on the amount of cusses in the rap, but we see that they see each other in a more friendly way when Mason waves it off. The end is even stunning to Mason who (in the audiences words) doesn't know what to say. Even through all the shit he's seen, Mason has nothing to say that will comfort him or re-assure him. I imagine it's how any of us would react in the same situation. In two minutes, the movie tells us more than five minutes of conversation ever could, and it's a solid rap to boot.
Next up, Grace and Marcus.
It's obvious that a decent amount of work went into developing Jayden's character. Even before she is seen on screen, she's talked about for a solid three minutes of screen time. The movie doesn't fuck you around, it wants you to care about this character. To be honest, I didn't cling to her arc like I did everyone else's, but as a character she is just as believable as everyone else. She's introduced in a way that you think she'll be this stuck up bitch that eventually will come to terms with her situation, and for the most part that's what happens. It's the way that it's handled is what makes her an interesting character. Having her throw a tantrum is a brilliant way of conveying her realisation of what's happening to her. We saw Sammy have a fit, and that showed us how people act in this home, so by having her do the same thing, we see not only that she's going through turmoil but that she's slowly becoming a member of the home. Her bond with Grace isn't exactly engaging, but is still easily believable. Based on how Grace reacts to finding out that Jayden was abused, we get the feeling that she's never encountered someone like this before, and it motivates her even more to help this kid.
The payoff may have been a bit on the nose, but it's clearly done in order to inject some levity into an overly depressing movie. After being taken on such an emotional ride, I can let a slightly forced happy ending slide.
Mason and Grace. The best, most boring love story ever
It's weird that their scenes together were the most engaging in the film. I've seen love in movies before, bad love told well and good love told bad, but it's rare that we see normal love told normally. There's no speeches in airports, no boombox outside the window. It's just love, and it's fucking beautiful. I really want to talk about the scene above in particular. We don't need to know how long they've been dating or how they met, the movie tells us how it is now. It's not overly exaggerated love like we see in rom coms, it's what love is like for us. There's the funny, but there's also the heartfelt. Mason tells Grace that she's the weirdest most beautiful girl he's ever met, often that kind of line is used when the guy is trying to woo the girl, but here, it's Grace testing him. She wants to know if he'll stick around when he finds out she's pregnant.
As much as Grace is our main character and we're supposed to root for her, she is flawed. She's too scared to tell Mason she's pregnant and it's unclear whether he knows she was abused. When they start kissing and he sticks his hand up her skirt, she freaks out and hits him. She can't deal with what's happened to her and it puts a strain on the relationship. This is after we see such a touching and heart-warming segment that makes us believe that these two are happy. Love!
As I've said multiple times, you need to see this movie. For someone who sees movies for their artistic value, it's an example of all the positive of movies we keep talking about. For someone who thinks that the Transformers movies are the best you've ever seen, hopefully it can set you on the right track.
Next week we'll be looking at either Whiplash or Prisoners. I'll decide eventually.
