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)
at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
  • A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
    One wholesome, unassuming icon plays another in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Tom Hanks or rather his persona is the embodiment of...
  • Frankenstein
    Oscar Isaac I was largely knocked out by Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein even though another go at this old chestnut was the last thin...
  • Quick Takes, February 2025
    Something is askew in Dos Monjes Juan Bustillo's Dos Monjes (Two Monks) is a near masterpiece from  1934.  This sound film is a deliriou...
  • Red Rose White Rose
    Joan Chen and Winston Chao Stanley Kwan's Red Rose White Rose  is a rapturous romantic melodrama from  1994.  The film is relatively fai...
  • The Beast
    Léa Seydoux Bertrand Bonello's La Bête is made up of three variations of Henry James' novella "The Beast in the Jungle", a...