Short Term 12

Kaitlyn Dever and Brie Larson in Short Term 12

Destin Daniel Cretton's Short Term 12 is a better than average drama that suffers from a fatal case of the cutes. It is an indie flick about a short-term residential treatment facility where the lines become blurred between staff members and patients. The bonding scenes are not as icky as they could be thanks to Cretton's restraint and the talents of Brie Larson, LaKeith Stanfield, and Kaitlyn Dever. However, Cretton frames his everyday tragedies as if this were a M*A*S*H* like ensemble comedy. The effect is jarring. There is much more than a spoonful of sugar making the medicine go down when the film ends with an adolescent charge running out of detention with a Superman cape on. (11/25/16)