Short Term 12

Warper

This is a decent little indie film that is getting good reviews. Focuses on life in a small foster care kinda place for troubled kids. Worth a peek, nothing too extravagant happens but it clicks along nicely with a good performance from the lead.

johnny_ultimate

I found this film a little frustrating. It toes the line between mawkish and endearing. Some individual scenes, like the rapping practice, are compelling and powerful, where the film's lack of pretension is an asset in creating a straightforward but raw tale. Other moments are overloaded with less than subtle dialogue and drift very close to cheaply, manipulatively sentimental (the scenes between Grace and Mason didn't feel credible to me at all). Some characters were very well developed - and the film featured uniformly solid performances, particularly Larson - while I questioned whether others were subjected to some sort of editing room massacre. The 'new guy' (Rami Malek) plot felt particularly disjointed, like it was leading somewhere before getting more-or-less ignored. And yes, while some scenes were undeniably affecting, I thought the third act really dipped into basic, familiar and 'life-affirming' triumphalism.

The series of happy endings sharply contrasted with the final scenes suggestion that all of this was just one typical chapter in a far longer, repetitious cycle. For a film seemingly hinting there's never an easy ending, it settles on several really easy, cut-and-dry endings.

A film set in a location where anything could happen at any time - and the director takes the time to establish that fact in the first act - really shouldn't feel this predictable. The surprises are in short supply following the film's prologue (the 'cupcake' scene works well though), and any later joys are mostly through watching a talented cast interact with each other rather than any imaginative thematic or narrative depths.

That's not to say it's a poor film or anything - it's very watchable, injected with energy and enthusiasm by a talented cast and admittedly good intentions. Good intentions only get us so far, though, and the film, for all its emotional moments, opts for simplification too often. There's promise here, teases of more complicated themes and stories, but it just to me felt like promise not quite fulfilled.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

The 'new guy' (Rami Malek) plot felt particularly disjointed, like it was leading somewhere before getting more-or-less ignored.

I kind of felt like he was there to act as a sort of "in" for the viewer. They could explain the basics of the facility, the whole outside the gate thing and what not in a quite natural way and without it feeling too much like exposition. He was also kind of comic relief. The scene where the girls asked him to jump rope and when the other carer was asking Louis if he was okay were quite funny. I thought his story, although brief, was fairly complete.

Him finding Sammy's toy down the back of the couch and giving it back to him was one of my favourite scenes. I thought it showed he had settled in enough to make the decision by himself and to make the decision that was right for the kid, not for the therapists or whoever decided to take his toys away.

As for the tied up happy endings, I don't know that they were. Sure they seemed like everyone had made progress and were heading in the right direction but like the stories that book ended the film it depends on how you tell it. They're all happy endings if you only tell them up to the end of the happy bits.

It's definitely one of the better films I've seen this year and it's good to see a relatively small film get a decent audience by pure chance or by word of mouth.

johnny_ultimate

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

I kind of felt like he was there to act as a sort of "in" for the viewer. They could explain the basics of the facility, the whole outside the gate thing and what not in a quite natural way and without it feeling too much like exposition. He was also kind of comic relief. The scene where the girls asked him to jump rope and when the other carer was asking Louis if he was okay were quite funny. I thought his story, although brief, was fairly complete.

Him finding Sammy's toy down the back of the couch and giving it back to him was one of my favourite scenes. I thought it showed he had settled in enough to make the decision by himself and to make the decision that was right for the kid, not for the therapists or whoever decided to take his toys away.

Alas, the whole 'new guy as audience surrogate' is the oldest trick in the book, and I didn't feel the filmmakers had anything to say about him. The scene with Sammy, while well delivered, felt disjointed and just awkwardly interruptive to the rest of the story, and the earlier scenes just portrayed him as farcically ignorant. As a result, I struggled to connect with his character's arc at all.

As for the tied up happy endings, I don't know that they were. Sure they seemed like everyone had made progress and were heading in the right direction but like the stories that book ended the film it depends on how you tell it. They're all happy endings if you only tell them up to the end of the happy bits.

But that's the thing - they only tell the happy bits, leaving no room for ambiguity whatsoever. The grim end to the initial story suggests happy, clearcut endings are rare here, but the rest of the film makes no effort whatsoever to reflect that, betraying the implied reality of the short term unit itself. Even though a few potential obstacles face the characters at its conclusion, the ending still feels like it's wrapped in an extremely nice little package. The screenplay generally is a cookie cutter simplification of what should be challenging subject matter, and I just wish the director was less reluctant to conform to familiar formula: sabotaging the good work on display elsewhere. It's the films overall narrative structure that undermines its convincing details and performances.

S.M.B.

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

But that's the thing - they only tell the happy bits, leaving no room for ambiguity whatsoever. The grim end to the initial story suggests happy, clearcut endings are rare here, but the rest of the film makes no effort whatsoever to reflect that, betraying the implied reality of the short term unit itself. Even though a few potential obstacles face the characters at its conclusion, the ending still feels like it's wrapped in an extremely nice little package. The screenplay generally is a cookie cutter simplification of what should be challenging subject matter, and I just wish the director was less reluctant to conform to familiar formula: sabotaging the good work on display elsewhere. It's the films overall narrative structure that undermines its convincing details and performances.

That's a little harsh. Each thread may have ended on a somewhat uplifting note but I wouldn't call them unambiguous, clearcut happy endings. Like TICKLE_ME_ELMO has said, the movie goes out of its way to point out that these stories don't always end well. It's simply a matter of whether a story teller concludes with an uplifting note or not. The film could have been about kids in even bleaker situations but I don't think that's the story the film maker wanted to tell.

I think the way the movie balances the sombre subject matter with the more uplifting notes is one of its strong points and I am glad it didn't end (or even go) to that a darker place. It didn't need to in my opinion.

johnny_ultimate

S.M.B. wrote: »

Like TICKLE_ME_ELMO has said, the movie goes out of its way to point out that these stories don't always end well. It's simply a matter of whether a story teller concludes with an uplifting note or not. The film could have been about kids in even bleaker situations but I don't think that's the story the film maker wanted to tell.

To me the problem is that the film more often than not tells us that these stories don't always end well, rather than showing us things don't always end well. It's almost as if the core narrative and the more thorough portrayal of the short term unit feel like separate entities. That early story is a real shock to the system, a challenging, uneasy opening gambit that prepares the audience for something different than the film ultimately offers. Sure, some of the characters do go through a tough time in the film, but the film always offers if not completely unambiguous than at least generally uplifting conclusions - bar, perhaps, the recurring escapee, whose situation remains (un)stable

I can only restress that it's a intriguing and in many ways very accomplished debut feature (or near debut feature), and Larson et al ensure it's never dull. The first half especially is a fascinating exploration of its chosen setting, characters and themes. But the story just didn't quite sit right with me: an easy, predictable story to explore uneasy, challenging themes.

S.M.B.

I guess I think that they get to have their cake and eat it by showing us uplifting endings while hinting at the long term reality and the film is all the better for it.

You could argue that the Jayden characters story ends on a 'happy note' as she finally makes the decision to out her abusive father but the film does plenty to show us that like Grace she'll have to deal with the consequences of the long term underlying trauma. And Graces story herself doesn't conclude in a cookie cutter happy ending at all. It just concludes on a slightly optimistic one.

meoklmrk91

I really enjoyed this little film, I hadn't heard about it until today when I was looking for a movie to watch tonight. I think it ended in a more uplifting way than a happy ending, but that's just my take on it. There were some seriously hard moments to watch and some seriously excellent performances. It felt really authentic, a true snapshot of these characters lives.