Short Term 12

Any director who sees "Short Term 12" will want to cast Larson in something. This movie puts her on the map.

Rehab movies nearly always make me cringe, as if the audience needs to take medicine, as if hope needs to be force fed. Short Term 12, an exception...

The film succeeds by its simple storytelling technique – no explosions, no sweeping music signaling emotional peaks, no big reveals. It&rsquo...

Short Term 12 wraps up with one of the most touchingly memorable last moments of any film this year. Despite a title that’s hard to...

Short Term 12 is a film about scars, some physical, others emotional, but all examined with a sensitivity and understanding that cut...

This is a film about hurt and healing, isolation and fear, need and rage – and it’s not just the motley, messed-up crew of 14...

This movie has the dash and esprit of service comedies like MASH and the harrowing emotions of misunderstood youth films like The 400 Blows.

Larson, in particular, does wonders with a character who in other hands could easily have come across as overly earnest, even saccharine… It&r...

Short Term 12 thrives on the dangerous chemistry between its young, talented actors.

There are perceptive scenes and abrasive moments. But there’s also a soapy need to launder every problem into a happy or "closured" deno...

Don’t be put off by its forgettable title. Short Term 12 is a deeply memorable film.

Short Term 12 captures the complex rhythms of institutional life – for worker and inhabitant – while weaving the story of Grace...

Set in a foster-care facility outside of San Francisco, this independent drama is vivid and heartfelt in its depiction of social work, at time...

Affecting drama about troubled kids is a breakout for Brie Larson without losing its ensemble balance.

Larson’s performance is something of a quiet revelation, and the same could be said of the film itself.

Cretton’s screenplay pulls off a tricky balance of imbuing its story with emotional weight while not coming across as cloying in the pro...

I don’t expect to see a better film this year than Short Term 12.

This is a walk through familiar territory, but it wins you over step by step.

An authentic drama couched in character that never stoops to manipulation.

An emotionally authentic examination of the lives of those who live in and work at a children’s home where the lines between the inhabit...

Cretton pulls off a tricky balancing act in "Short Term 12,'' which could easily have become a colossal downer if played to melodramatic...

The film is a quiet sensation.

Brie Larson is very impressive as the caring, funny supervisor whose own demons threaten to engulf her.

It’s infinitely dynamic, making it one of the most moving, harrowing, heartwarming, and satisfying films of the year.

At times Short Term 12 seems uncertain where it’s going, but this matches the circumstances of both staff and residents.

"Short Term 12" is a sly wonder of a film. It brings you into its unique world and then slowly reveals its characters, letting them unfold gra...

A compact masterpiece of storytelling that brims equally with ambition and humility. It is, by a wide margin, the best film I have seen s...

Difficult to describe without it sounding manipulative or melodramatic but I’ll do my best. Trust me when I tell you that this is one of...

A barnstorming performance from Brie Larson is the reason to see this bittersweet drama of damaged teens.

Short Term 12 strikes a delicate balance between emotional turbulence and artful understatement.

This surprising little sleeper will give you more big feelings in its first 15 minutes than every one of last summer’s blockbusters...

"Short Term 12" is a small wonder, a film of exceptional naturalness and empathy that takes material about troubled teenagers and young adults...

Despite the heavy subject matter, the film never bogs down into the daily grief it depicts, but maintains a jaunty current of humor that count...

In showing us all the richness and tenderness and passion that’s possible in young lives that have pretty much been discarded by ordinary soc...

When Short Term 12 reaches its last scene, the lump it leaves in your throat feels earned.

The unembellished emotional honesty conveyed in the indie drama Short Term 12 is so expertly handled that it carries the viewer past any...

The film’s climax feels a little rushed and overwrought, but the movie’s real resonance is its exploration of empathy and vocation.

This is a small film about a society of castoffs, and while it’s beautifully acted and often moving, it’s also predictable, becaus...

Short Term 12 wants to shine a light on these under-paid, under-valued figures and cheats, just a little, to get the job done.

"Short Term 12" comes from a place of delicate and truthful understatement, which allows the humanity and decency of its characters-and, yes...

There’s tremendous dramatic value to the aching and sometimes devastating scenes that home in on these kids' private torments.

It has the intimacy of a documentary so that the solid, assured narrative structure sneaks up on you.