“As soon as it was over I was sad that I had not watched it sooner…”

Short Term 12 is a movie that I have seen countless times on Netflix, on Amazon, and even at Best Buy, but it never really caught my eye. It wasn’t  until recently, when I kept hearing from people just how good this movie is, that I decided to watch it. As soon as it was over I was sad that I had not watched it sooner. For those who don’t know, Short Term 12 is a movie about a group home for at-risk teens, and the people in charge of that group home. More specifically Brie Larson’s character, Grace, who connects with the children as she works through some tough times herself.

The movie opens up with a conversation between the employees of the group home as they welcome a new employee. This conversation will highlight how funny this movie can be. I wouldn’t classify this movie as a comedy, but it definitely finds humour in some pretty dark shit at points. The stories that are told by some characters, and even some characters themselves, are just funny. The story told in the film is beautiful. I would recommend preparing yourself for watching this movie, because at times it is comparable to being punched in the stomach with emotions. But it is very well written, as are the individual characters. As someone who has not had the best life so far, and is currently working through some shit, it was great for me to see this movie and have the embodiment of some of my feelings shown to me on screen. And even though some of the forms of expression used by the characters in the film were a little ham-fisted, it was understandable and didn’t reduce the relatability to the characters themselves. The acting in the movie was also amazing, not only did Brie Larson do an amazing job, but another stand out for me was Keith Stanfield, who played Marcus. The amount of subtlety shown by the character Marcus was remarkable, and I hope to see Keith Stanfield in many movies to come. And it wasn’t only those two actors that were great, all of the actors (especially the teenagers) brought little subtleties that helped their characters seem very real. The score of the movie was a high point, really accentuating the feelings I was having throughout. And also the look of the movie was interesting. The use of lighting and colours made the appearance of the film bleak (to match the tone), but also at a times very beautiful often resembling a watercolour painting.

Short Term 12 is a movie that I absolutely loved, and thought it was brilliantly executed. It is also a movie that I will be recommending to people from now to the end of time.

I give Short Term 12 an A (5/5)