There are not many pieces of media that have the ability to bring me to tears, but Short Term 12 is among them.
Short Term 12 follows Grace, working in a group home for at risk teens, navigating a long-term relationship, and dealing with a new arrival who brings out Grace’s own deeply buried trauma.
This movie did irreparable damage to my thirteen-year-old brain when I first watched it and all subsequent times after that. It is a devastating movie. It makes me feel miserable every time and I absolutely love it. It is the saddest movie I’ve ever seen and it will stick with you for the rest of your days. It's a heart-wrenching, harrowing movie, but it is so immensely human. It deals with many severe and upsetting topics but it does so with grace. It’s largely about trauma and how it follows you, abuse, foster care facilities, anger, loss, and isolation, among other subjects. It’s hard to watch, but it is such an unflinching look at how ruinous trauma can be, the kinds of things it makes people do, and its long-term consequences.
Short Term 12 feels, in a way that few movies can truly achieve, like an intimate glimpse into people's lives. Every single shot is like looking behind a curtain; you’ll forget they’re all sets, that you’re not watching real people go about their lives. This is in large part due to Brie Larson, Kaitlyn Denver, LaKeith Stanfield, Alex Calloway, Kevin Balmore, Franz Turner, John Gallagher Jr, Stephanie Beatriz, and Rami Malek, just to name a few. There is not a single performance in Short Term 12 that does not elevate the movie and imbue it with humanity.
There is so much love in this movie. There is so much care and empathy; Mason and Grace love each other so deeply and it is so lovely to watch. Mason is so gentle with her and Grace is trying desperately to push through the detachment she’s grown into to reach out to him. Their love is one of patience and care and it is so emotionally compelling to watch.
Grace spends most of the movie taking on other people’s problems to avoid her own; by protecting Jayden she is protecting her childhood self who had no one to protect her. There is so much love in the way Grace cares for the kids and in the way the kids care for each other. I know I say it too much in this post but I cannot think of a better word to describe this movie than human; it is so affecting and digs right into the core of what it means to love someone, to protect someone, to peer into yourself and excavate buried memories that have shaped the way you exist in the world.
I say ‘I love this movie’ about a lot of movies but I love this movie in ways that I cannot articulate. It haunts me. It has haunted me since the first time I saw it and it will never stop haunting me and I am so glad to have stumbled upon it. I am always in awe of this movie, I will never stop thinking of it. It is so deeply human and moving. There exists little that can move me to tears, that can haunt me like this movie does. Please, watch it. You won’t ever forget it.
Note: If you’re going to watch it (and I hope you will) please make sure to check trigger warnings first, as it does deal with a lot of upsetting topics.
That’s all for now, take care of yourself and as always tell me your thoughts!
Getting misty-eyed just from reading your summary, you perfectly nailed down everything I love about this movie.
I think it's easy for movies with similar trauma-care themes to feel kind of shallow and oscar-bait-y, but something about Short Term 12 is very different and special. I think you're right that a lot of the heart and intimacy within comes from the all-too-real performances from the cast.
Absolutely gut-wrenching, can't stand to watch it more than once every ~7 years, but it is worth the wait every time.