"In Your Eyes" (from Joss Whedon) and "Short Term 12" Among other films
"Perfect Sister"
starring: Abigail Breslin, Georgie Henley, Mira Sorvino, James Russo
Unfortunately, Abigail Breslin has grown up from her little girl roles where she shined and came off quite adorably (re: Little Miss Sunshine), much like Dakota Fanning, and she seems to be choosing roles that are the antithesis of what she'd been typecast as in her childhood. With this role, Breslin plays Sandra to her equally troubled sister, Beth (played by Georgie Henley) in what really plays out like a terrible Lifetime movie. The sisters are inseparable and are the only two people they can truly count on in their lives, because their mother (Mira Sorvino, in a terrible role) is an alcoholic who is a divorcee who wastes all her money on booze and depends on and goes from abusive boyfriend to abusive boyfriend. Everyone's lives are in a downward spiral of intense emotional distress- well everyone except Sandra and Beth's biological father (who is not in the film, but apparently has a much better life with a new family- a piece of the resentment puzzle). The sisters are pushed to their last breaking point with their mother and decide the best (and only?) option is to murder their mother (death by drowning, in a bathtub) and make it look like an accident. Everything goes according to plan, but something about these two girls makes them over-confident and brag about their "perfect" crime, and thus, the story unravels.
The trouble with this film, besides the fact that it plays out like a Lifetime movie is the fact that it is "based on a true story" in which the script makes the two girls out to be victims, in order to evoke sympathy from the viewers. Half the film portrays them this way, but then makes an emotional 360 and the girls come off more like they were only concerned with getting the insurance settlement from their mother's "accidental" death in order to bankroll their party lifestyle. The filmmaker has really made the film confusing to the audience because you start the film feeling sorry for these two girls, but then you realize they are actually terribly selfish.
This whole film feels really forced and not enjoyable.
...........................................................................
"Breathe In"
starring: Guy Pearce, Felicity Jones, Amy Ryan, Mackenzie Davis, Matthew Daddario
written and directed by: Drake Doremus (and Ben York Jones)
Felicity Jones is an incredible actress, from Britain with love. She has great, expressive eyes and a toothy smile that could definitely melt any man she comes in contact with. The trouble with "Breathe In" can be found in the "creepy" factor, because Jones is playing an 18 year old exchange student and musician and Guy Pearce is playing a most-likely late-30s mid-40s high school music teacher and for all we know, a happily, well content husband and father to a 17 year old daughter. The idea of him pursuing a barely legal affair with this 18 year old British girl is not very believable. Pearce and Jones try very hard to turn in convincing performances, but all of their interactions seem forced and do not resonant emotionally with the audience. This is definitely disappointing because the filmmakers previously made "Like Crazy" which was a great film, also starring Felicity Jones.
.............................................................................
"In Your Eyes"
starring: Zoe Kazan, Michael Stahl-David, Mark Feuerstein, Jennifer Grey, Nikki Reed
directed by: Brin Hill
written by: Joss Whedon
It's definitely a known fact that I'm a Joss Whedon fan (he wrote and produced this indie film) that started way back in the '90s with his original "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" film and then the excellent television show. He has also made other television shows (re: Firefly and Dollhouse and Angel), but he has definitely made a name for himself on the big screen (re: Serenity, Cabin in the Woods, and of course The Avengers).
"In Your Eyes" begins with a young girl named Rebecca clinging her sled tightly as she studies the snowy New Hampshire hill with great focus. As she races down the hill, the film jumps to a boy clutching his desk at school. Suddenly he can somehow see exactly what she does. When her sled slams into a tree, they simultaneously get knocked unconscious. These two characters don’t share the inexplicable psychic connection again until twenty years later.
The film removes the soft focus filter to indicate present day, reintroducing the characters as adults now. Dylan (Michael Stahl-David) is an ex-convict who lives in a trailer home in the New Mexico desert, while Rebecca (Zoe Kazan) is unhappily married to a wealthy doctor in New Hampshire. On a random afternoon, their strange connection suddenly comes back, allowing them to see through each other’s eyes once again. As an added bonus, the two are now also able to talk to each other. Without really questioning these powers, the two soon become best friends and engage in flirtatious conversations. It’s easy to guess what happens next. The fact that it quickly turns into a familiar love story is a bit disappointing, especially coming from Whedon's mind.
Admittedly, trying to justify the logistics of the film is pointless. Regardless of how (or why) these two are able to communicate, the concept of a long-distance relationship between two people who’ve never met is enchanting and relevant. While films like Spike Jonze’s "Her" depict falling in love with someone you’ve never met more effectively, In Your Eyes does a good job exploring how love knows no bounds.
Zoe Kazan is a force to be reckoned with as an actress. She demands your attention with her adorable and cute face and her awkwardly sexy presence on the screen in every scene. Zoe is known for writing "Ruby Sparks," in which she played the main/title role as a way of spinning and turning male idea of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl role on its head. With "In Your Eyes" she plays the sad, romantic girl that eventually gets what she wants and needs, after seeing that she's made a mistake marrying the wrong man, when the man of her dreams was literally inside her the whole time and could see what she sees and feel what she feels. This is quite an intriguing plot and Whedon almost knocks it out of the park with his almost-perfect writing style (of both story and dialogue), unfortunately it turns into a predictable love story/film with an interesting twist (of fate).
.....................................................................
"Arbitrage"
starring: Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Tim Roth, Brit Marling, Laetitia Casta
written and directed by: Nicholas Jarecki
The morality of a duplicitous New York City hedge-fund director is scrutinized amid the trappings of a thriller in writer/director Nicholas Jarecki’s first narrative feature. That Arbitrage’s money mogul is played by the silver-tongued/silver-haired Richard Gere works to complicate our relationship to the story’s morally loathsome protagonist.
Gere plays suave and handsome Robert Miller, a financial master of the universe, who is married to well-toned penthouse matron Ellen (Susan Sarandon). As Arbitrage opens, we witness Miller completing his day’s business meetings as he returns home to a large family dinner arranged for his 60th birthday. Robert is trying to negotiate a merger of his hedge-fund company, and cash out the company he built before anyone notices the $400 million that is missing from the company’s ledgers. Once home, he appears to be a doting spouse and father who expresses his wishes to retire and spend more time with his beloved family, even though his daughter, Brooke (Brit Marling), who is the company’s chief financial officer wants to continue building a family business with her dad. On the heels of these declarations, Robert leaves to visit his beautiful, young girlfriend (Laetitia Casta) in her artist’s loft, an affair we suspect Ellen knows about but is willing to tolerate as long as it doesn’t interfere with her own privileged spot in the social grid (perhaps quite a common occurrence in reality).
With these opening scenes, the collective moral compass of Arbitrage begins spinning wildly – long before the fatal car accident that throws everything into disarray and leads Robert to seek help from Jimmy Grant (Nate Parker), the son of his former chauffeur, and brings Colombo-like Detective Bryer (Roth) into Robert’s life.
This is a film that should really piss us off as the audience, especially given our culture and climate over the past decade- our society's culture seemed to have been built around hedge fund and insurance companies, as well as banks being too big to fail, bailing each other out, making bets on other people's failures, etc. Gere's character is deplorable even before he starts putting things in motion to cover up the accidental murder of his mistress, while pushing forth a merger costing hundreds of millions of dollars. Robert (Gere) is a toxic force who clearly doesn't know his own boundaries, but he clearly knows his strengths as a (business)man. Gere gives another performance for the ages as the flawed tycoon on the run from the law. We understand his actions, but still do not forgive him for everything. Gere allows us to peer into the window of the soul of this terribly flawed and all too realistic portrait of a man who finally realizes that no amount of money will allow him to hide and lie to himself. There is one specific scene between Robert and his daughter/financial advisor/bookkeeper that is unbelievable to watch.
....................................................................
"Barefoot"
starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Scott Speedman, Treat Williams, Kate Burton, J.K. Simmons
directed by: Andrew Fleming
written by: Stephen Zotnowski
This definitely has the formula and makings for the typical Manic Pixie Dream Girl film and it should have been good (especially because of my love for said films), but unfortunately it left little to be desired. The ingredients for a decent indie romantic comedy are there: a spoonful of the sugary sweetness and quirkiness of Evan Rachel Wood, playing a mental institution patient who spent her entire life being sheltered by her crazy mother (who's dead now); Daisy is doe-eyed as the seemingly crazy girl who needs her eyes opened to all the small yet great wonders of the world. And then, there's Jay (played by Scott Speedman, a bit out of his element here, after his stint in the "Underworld" franchise as a werewolf). Jay is the never-do-well, down and out of his luck, owing bad guys lots of money, coming from a wealthy family but splintering away to make something of himself but failing miserably- he ends up pushing a mop at the mental institution that Daisy is admitted to at the beginning of the film. Jay needs to charm some money out of his wealthy father and he sees his younger brother's wedding as the perfect opportunity. Unfortunately, Daisy follows him out of the building, escaping, and ends up hitching along with Jay to New Orleans for the family time and nuptials. Jay and Daisy decide to pretend to be a couple, of course, they end up falling for each other (Daisy much faster).
Throughout the course of their journey together, Daisy reveals that she is not like most girls, having been raised by an overprotective mother who kept her sheltered from the outside world for much of her life; she has grown up lacking the social skills and worldliness necessary to get by in society. Wood portrays Daisy’s childlike nature with such overemphasis that it is difficult to believe the naiveté in her actions as she experiences many firsts–her first time flying on a plane; her first time drinking champagne; her first time on a roller coaster. Her behavior comes across as trite, and insincere. Speedman has an easier time portraying Jay, though only because there really is not much to his character. Displays of cliché bad boy behavior are present–a one night stand, gambling issues, visits to the strip club and of course the presence of the gangsters to whom he owes the debt, as mentioned in the outset. The various cliches of the film are so blatant throughout that their obvious emotional responses seem almost dictated. But they result in only general detachment.
The Manic Pixie Dream Girl fantasy that Wood presents as Daisy is not convincing enough for us to believe that she is exactly the amount of change that Jay needs in order to change his path in life (unfortunately, he will still owe thousands of dollars to those bad guys). The filmmakers want us to root for them as a couple, but we are not convinced enough to sympathize with them, which makes this film fall short of the typical fantasy rom-com where everything works out for the two lovers in the end.
....................................................................
"Short Term 12"
starring: Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr., Stephanie Beatriz, Rami Malek, Alex Calloway, Kevin Hernandez, Keith Stanfield, Frantz Turner, Kaitlyn Dever
written and directed by: Destin Daniel Cretton
Given that "I Am Not a Hispter" was Destin Daniel Cretton's first feature film and "Short Term 12" is his second film, I honestly cannot wait to see what else he writes and directs, because so far he has knocked filmmaking out of the virtual park!
"Short Term 12" has unembellished emotional honesty down to an art, without taking it for granted. It is expertly handled by the filmmaker and the actors. Even though there is a familiar storyline that might make audiences hesitate to really care that much about the characters and their arc, this film rises above the cliches and presents the young adults and teenagers that must face the truth of the raw deal they've been handed and how they will deal with it (alone or with someone else).
The film is set for the majority of the time in a facility that houses foster-care and other troubled teenagers (until they age out at 18 years old). Their caretakers are twentysomethings with their own deep-seeded issues. Chief among these caretakers and clearly the one who cares the most (although they each seem to care in their own way because of their own issues) is Grace (played by Brie Larson, in perhaps one of the best performances of the year, 2013, and perhaps the early teen-decade- complete with brunette hair and a lack of makeup). Grace is the unit leader who has a calm demeanor that has made her the most looked-up-to "adult" by the teenagers. Her calm demeanor is tested almost immediately when Jayden (Dever) shows up as what Grace sees as a younger version of herself. Grace's calm exterior is a mask for festering issues that get exacerbated by this young girl, Jayden.
The film belongs to Brie Larson and the heavy subject matter weighs perfectly on her shoulders as she brings Grace's story to life, slowly but surely.
Brie Larson is a revelation as the linchpin of Short Term 12. An industrious young actress, her performance here is remarkably natural and understated. Dimensions of Grace are gradually revealed as the film progresses, and in bits we learn of the old wounds and present turmoil that simmer beneath her presentation as an easygoing and highly competent professional. Grace’s internal conflicts are so under wraps that they’re not fully known to her live-in boyfriend and co-worker Mason. Even their relationship is kept under wraps at the facility, although it’s a known secret to the residents and other staff.
This is an emotional film that definitely brought me to tears on a couple of occasions and it is really hard to not find yourself emotionally invested in these characters and their struggles. I could tell almost immediately that I was watching an unbelievably great film, destined to be a hidden gem (really only released for the festival circuit) for the ages. I absolutely loved this film. Every single minute of it. This is definitely one of my favorite films (of all time) and is a must see. Immediately.
starring: Abigail Breslin, Georgie Henley, Mira Sorvino, James Russo
Unfortunately, Abigail Breslin has grown up from her little girl roles where she shined and came off quite adorably (re: Little Miss Sunshine), much like Dakota Fanning, and she seems to be choosing roles that are the antithesis of what she'd been typecast as in her childhood. With this role, Breslin plays Sandra to her equally troubled sister, Beth (played by Georgie Henley) in what really plays out like a terrible Lifetime movie. The sisters are inseparable and are the only two people they can truly count on in their lives, because their mother (Mira Sorvino, in a terrible role) is an alcoholic who is a divorcee who wastes all her money on booze and depends on and goes from abusive boyfriend to abusive boyfriend. Everyone's lives are in a downward spiral of intense emotional distress- well everyone except Sandra and Beth's biological father (who is not in the film, but apparently has a much better life with a new family- a piece of the resentment puzzle). The sisters are pushed to their last breaking point with their mother and decide the best (and only?) option is to murder their mother (death by drowning, in a bathtub) and make it look like an accident. Everything goes according to plan, but something about these two girls makes them over-confident and brag about their "perfect" crime, and thus, the story unravels.
The trouble with this film, besides the fact that it plays out like a Lifetime movie is the fact that it is "based on a true story" in which the script makes the two girls out to be victims, in order to evoke sympathy from the viewers. Half the film portrays them this way, but then makes an emotional 360 and the girls come off more like they were only concerned with getting the insurance settlement from their mother's "accidental" death in order to bankroll their party lifestyle. The filmmaker has really made the film confusing to the audience because you start the film feeling sorry for these two girls, but then you realize they are actually terribly selfish.
This whole film feels really forced and not enjoyable.
...........................................................................
"Breathe In"
starring: Guy Pearce, Felicity Jones, Amy Ryan, Mackenzie Davis, Matthew Daddario
written and directed by: Drake Doremus (and Ben York Jones)
Felicity Jones is an incredible actress, from Britain with love. She has great, expressive eyes and a toothy smile that could definitely melt any man she comes in contact with. The trouble with "Breathe In" can be found in the "creepy" factor, because Jones is playing an 18 year old exchange student and musician and Guy Pearce is playing a most-likely late-30s mid-40s high school music teacher and for all we know, a happily, well content husband and father to a 17 year old daughter. The idea of him pursuing a barely legal affair with this 18 year old British girl is not very believable. Pearce and Jones try very hard to turn in convincing performances, but all of their interactions seem forced and do not resonant emotionally with the audience. This is definitely disappointing because the filmmakers previously made "Like Crazy" which was a great film, also starring Felicity Jones.
As the film opens, the Reynolds family of upstate New York is about to have their bucolic lives disrupted by the arrival of British exchange student Sophie (Jones) into their host home. Husband and dad Keith (Pearce) teaches piano at the local high school but his midlife crisis is made clear as he rummages through old photos of himself with his former rock band and winces when his wife Megan (Ryan) refers to his occasional performances with the symphony orchestra as a hobby. Their daughter Lauren (Davis, who has an uncanny resemblance to young Laura Dern) is a typical teen: She’s a member of the swim team who longs for a car of her own and the affection of a boy who’s clearly not worthy of her. Megan collects and sells cookie jars – an apt metaphor in this story about a grown man who gets caught with his fingers inside the proverbial cookie jar.
The English rose, Sophie, arrives into this sheltered hothouse where her presence upsets the ostensible calm of the Reynolds family. The screenplay takes care to establish that Sophie has already turned 18, but it’s still creepy to witness the lingering glances between the young woman and middle-aged Keith. Those glances turn into something more as Keith grows ever emboldened by Sophie’s youthful blather about the importance of being true to oneself. But like the game of Jenga the family plays at the beginning of the film, the removal of a single piece is enough to topple the entire structure: Cue the rainstorms, smashed cookie jars, and car crash.
Breathe In piles on lots of dramatic occurrences that substitute for the characters’ lack of depth and poor decision-making. More passion can be heard in the film’s classical soundtrack than what emanates from the mouths of the characters. Breathe in if you must, but don’t wait to exhale.
.............................................................................
"In Your Eyes"
starring: Zoe Kazan, Michael Stahl-David, Mark Feuerstein, Jennifer Grey, Nikki Reed
directed by: Brin Hill
written by: Joss Whedon
"In Your Eyes" begins with a young girl named Rebecca clinging her sled tightly as she studies the snowy New Hampshire hill with great focus. As she races down the hill, the film jumps to a boy clutching his desk at school. Suddenly he can somehow see exactly what she does. When her sled slams into a tree, they simultaneously get knocked unconscious. These two characters don’t share the inexplicable psychic connection again until twenty years later.
The film removes the soft focus filter to indicate present day, reintroducing the characters as adults now. Dylan (Michael Stahl-David) is an ex-convict who lives in a trailer home in the New Mexico desert, while Rebecca (Zoe Kazan) is unhappily married to a wealthy doctor in New Hampshire. On a random afternoon, their strange connection suddenly comes back, allowing them to see through each other’s eyes once again. As an added bonus, the two are now also able to talk to each other. Without really questioning these powers, the two soon become best friends and engage in flirtatious conversations. It’s easy to guess what happens next. The fact that it quickly turns into a familiar love story is a bit disappointing, especially coming from Whedon's mind.
Admittedly, trying to justify the logistics of the film is pointless. Regardless of how (or why) these two are able to communicate, the concept of a long-distance relationship between two people who’ve never met is enchanting and relevant. While films like Spike Jonze’s "Her" depict falling in love with someone you’ve never met more effectively, In Your Eyes does a good job exploring how love knows no bounds.
Zoe Kazan is a force to be reckoned with as an actress. She demands your attention with her adorable and cute face and her awkwardly sexy presence on the screen in every scene. Zoe is known for writing "Ruby Sparks," in which she played the main/title role as a way of spinning and turning male idea of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl role on its head. With "In Your Eyes" she plays the sad, romantic girl that eventually gets what she wants and needs, after seeing that she's made a mistake marrying the wrong man, when the man of her dreams was literally inside her the whole time and could see what she sees and feel what she feels. This is quite an intriguing plot and Whedon almost knocks it out of the park with his almost-perfect writing style (of both story and dialogue), unfortunately it turns into a predictable love story/film with an interesting twist (of fate).
.....................................................................
"Arbitrage"
starring: Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Tim Roth, Brit Marling, Laetitia Casta
written and directed by: Nicholas Jarecki
The morality of a duplicitous New York City hedge-fund director is scrutinized amid the trappings of a thriller in writer/director Nicholas Jarecki’s first narrative feature. That Arbitrage’s money mogul is played by the silver-tongued/silver-haired Richard Gere works to complicate our relationship to the story’s morally loathsome protagonist.
Gere plays suave and handsome Robert Miller, a financial master of the universe, who is married to well-toned penthouse matron Ellen (Susan Sarandon). As Arbitrage opens, we witness Miller completing his day’s business meetings as he returns home to a large family dinner arranged for his 60th birthday. Robert is trying to negotiate a merger of his hedge-fund company, and cash out the company he built before anyone notices the $400 million that is missing from the company’s ledgers. Once home, he appears to be a doting spouse and father who expresses his wishes to retire and spend more time with his beloved family, even though his daughter, Brooke (Brit Marling), who is the company’s chief financial officer wants to continue building a family business with her dad. On the heels of these declarations, Robert leaves to visit his beautiful, young girlfriend (Laetitia Casta) in her artist’s loft, an affair we suspect Ellen knows about but is willing to tolerate as long as it doesn’t interfere with her own privileged spot in the social grid (perhaps quite a common occurrence in reality).
With these opening scenes, the collective moral compass of Arbitrage begins spinning wildly – long before the fatal car accident that throws everything into disarray and leads Robert to seek help from Jimmy Grant (Nate Parker), the son of his former chauffeur, and brings Colombo-like Detective Bryer (Roth) into Robert’s life.
This is a film that should really piss us off as the audience, especially given our culture and climate over the past decade- our society's culture seemed to have been built around hedge fund and insurance companies, as well as banks being too big to fail, bailing each other out, making bets on other people's failures, etc. Gere's character is deplorable even before he starts putting things in motion to cover up the accidental murder of his mistress, while pushing forth a merger costing hundreds of millions of dollars. Robert (Gere) is a toxic force who clearly doesn't know his own boundaries, but he clearly knows his strengths as a (business)man. Gere gives another performance for the ages as the flawed tycoon on the run from the law. We understand his actions, but still do not forgive him for everything. Gere allows us to peer into the window of the soul of this terribly flawed and all too realistic portrait of a man who finally realizes that no amount of money will allow him to hide and lie to himself. There is one specific scene between Robert and his daughter/financial advisor/bookkeeper that is unbelievable to watch.
....................................................................
"Barefoot"
starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Scott Speedman, Treat Williams, Kate Burton, J.K. Simmons
directed by: Andrew Fleming
written by: Stephen Zotnowski
This definitely has the formula and makings for the typical Manic Pixie Dream Girl film and it should have been good (especially because of my love for said films), but unfortunately it left little to be desired. The ingredients for a decent indie romantic comedy are there: a spoonful of the sugary sweetness and quirkiness of Evan Rachel Wood, playing a mental institution patient who spent her entire life being sheltered by her crazy mother (who's dead now); Daisy is doe-eyed as the seemingly crazy girl who needs her eyes opened to all the small yet great wonders of the world. And then, there's Jay (played by Scott Speedman, a bit out of his element here, after his stint in the "Underworld" franchise as a werewolf). Jay is the never-do-well, down and out of his luck, owing bad guys lots of money, coming from a wealthy family but splintering away to make something of himself but failing miserably- he ends up pushing a mop at the mental institution that Daisy is admitted to at the beginning of the film. Jay needs to charm some money out of his wealthy father and he sees his younger brother's wedding as the perfect opportunity. Unfortunately, Daisy follows him out of the building, escaping, and ends up hitching along with Jay to New Orleans for the family time and nuptials. Jay and Daisy decide to pretend to be a couple, of course, they end up falling for each other (Daisy much faster).
Throughout the course of their journey together, Daisy reveals that she is not like most girls, having been raised by an overprotective mother who kept her sheltered from the outside world for much of her life; she has grown up lacking the social skills and worldliness necessary to get by in society. Wood portrays Daisy’s childlike nature with such overemphasis that it is difficult to believe the naiveté in her actions as she experiences many firsts–her first time flying on a plane; her first time drinking champagne; her first time on a roller coaster. Her behavior comes across as trite, and insincere. Speedman has an easier time portraying Jay, though only because there really is not much to his character. Displays of cliché bad boy behavior are present–a one night stand, gambling issues, visits to the strip club and of course the presence of the gangsters to whom he owes the debt, as mentioned in the outset. The various cliches of the film are so blatant throughout that their obvious emotional responses seem almost dictated. But they result in only general detachment.
The Manic Pixie Dream Girl fantasy that Wood presents as Daisy is not convincing enough for us to believe that she is exactly the amount of change that Jay needs in order to change his path in life (unfortunately, he will still owe thousands of dollars to those bad guys). The filmmakers want us to root for them as a couple, but we are not convinced enough to sympathize with them, which makes this film fall short of the typical fantasy rom-com where everything works out for the two lovers in the end.
....................................................................
"Short Term 12"
starring: Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr., Stephanie Beatriz, Rami Malek, Alex Calloway, Kevin Hernandez, Keith Stanfield, Frantz Turner, Kaitlyn Dever
written and directed by: Destin Daniel Cretton
Given that "I Am Not a Hispter" was Destin Daniel Cretton's first feature film and "Short Term 12" is his second film, I honestly cannot wait to see what else he writes and directs, because so far he has knocked filmmaking out of the virtual park!
"Short Term 12" has unembellished emotional honesty down to an art, without taking it for granted. It is expertly handled by the filmmaker and the actors. Even though there is a familiar storyline that might make audiences hesitate to really care that much about the characters and their arc, this film rises above the cliches and presents the young adults and teenagers that must face the truth of the raw deal they've been handed and how they will deal with it (alone or with someone else).
The film is set for the majority of the time in a facility that houses foster-care and other troubled teenagers (until they age out at 18 years old). Their caretakers are twentysomethings with their own deep-seeded issues. Chief among these caretakers and clearly the one who cares the most (although they each seem to care in their own way because of their own issues) is Grace (played by Brie Larson, in perhaps one of the best performances of the year, 2013, and perhaps the early teen-decade- complete with brunette hair and a lack of makeup). Grace is the unit leader who has a calm demeanor that has made her the most looked-up-to "adult" by the teenagers. Her calm demeanor is tested almost immediately when Jayden (Dever) shows up as what Grace sees as a younger version of herself. Grace's calm exterior is a mask for festering issues that get exacerbated by this young girl, Jayden.
The film belongs to Brie Larson and the heavy subject matter weighs perfectly on her shoulders as she brings Grace's story to life, slowly but surely.
Brie Larson is a revelation as the linchpin of Short Term 12. An industrious young actress, her performance here is remarkably natural and understated. Dimensions of Grace are gradually revealed as the film progresses, and in bits we learn of the old wounds and present turmoil that simmer beneath her presentation as an easygoing and highly competent professional. Grace’s internal conflicts are so under wraps that they’re not fully known to her live-in boyfriend and co-worker Mason. Even their relationship is kept under wraps at the facility, although it’s a known secret to the residents and other staff.
This is an emotional film that definitely brought me to tears on a couple of occasions and it is really hard to not find yourself emotionally invested in these characters and their struggles. I could tell almost immediately that I was watching an unbelievably great film, destined to be a hidden gem (really only released for the festival circuit) for the ages. I absolutely loved this film. Every single minute of it. This is definitely one of my favorite films (of all time) and is a must see. Immediately.
Comments
Post a Comment