'Short Term 12'

'Short Term 12' Analysis

‘Short Term 12’ is a 2013 Drama film, produced by Asher Goldstein, directed and written by Destin Daniel Cretton. The main actors and actresses featured in the film are Brie Larson (Grace), John Gallagher Jr.(Mason), Rami Malek (Nate), Kaitlyn Dever (Jayden) and Keith Stanfield (Marcus).  Furthermore, the film has received over 20 awards and over 200 nominations, some of the wins being for Brie Larson, who won ‘Best Actress’ at the ‘Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards and Destin Daniel Cretton, who won ‘Best Film’ at the ‘2014 Valladolid International Film Festival’.

'Short Term 12' facility.

The film is about two young counsellors called Grace and Mason (who are also partners) who run a foster-care facility for teenagers up to the age of 18. The facility is for teenagers who have experience the worst kinds of abuse such as parental.

Throughout the film, the audience discovers the stories of most of the teenagers at the facility, for example Marcus who soon turns 18.

Community meeting; Marcus reveals he wants to shave his head for his 18th birthday.

We discover that as a child, he was abused by his mother and was forced to sell drugs. We learn this through a song that he composed himself and raps to Mason. Towards the end of the song, Marcus repeats the lyrics “Look into my eyes so you know what it’s like to live a life not knowing what a normal life’s like”. By repeating this, it shows mentally, what happened in the past to him, still affects him currently at the age of 18.

 

Furthermore, before this scene occurs, the audience gets an idea that he was abused by his mother as he requests to shave his head for his birthday, as he wants to see if his head is still lumpy as his mother would severely beat him on his head. This links to the representation of issues because it highlights the troubles that a child may face at a young age such as peer pressure. Additionally, as a child, you appear vulnerable to adults which is why is Marcus’ case, he was abused and was forced to sell drugs for his mother as stereotypically as his mother, she would have much more dominance over him.

Scene where Marcus shaves his head.

Another type of representation that is shown in the film is the representation of gender. We see the two main female characters; Grace and Jayden outside Jayden’s home having a conversation about Jayden’s dad. As Jayden’s dad is abusive to Jayden, Grace wants to live up to her role as a counsellor and wants to show that Jayden can talk to her about anything at anytime. With her, Grace has a baseball bat which she wanted to use as a weapon to attack Jayden’s dad in his sleep in form of revenge to what he has done to Jayden, which is severely attack her with a belt which Jayden reveals evidence of by showing her the bruise of the left side of her stomach. She also says “his favourite is the belt”, which reveals she is abused.

Jayden and Grace before they reach the house. Jayden attempted to run back home from the facility.

Eventually, Jayden then takes the baseball bat and starts to destroy the car which is located in the driveway. After demolishing two windows, she then hands the bat over to Grace and allows her to destroy the rest of the car. The actions that Grace and Jayden carry out in this scene breaks the stereotype of women being fragile as they've shown they are in control in a serious situation which typically would only be expected of men. 

Grace (Brie Larson) and Jayden (Kaitlyn Dever) ride away from the car scene.