Search - Short Term 12 on DVD

Sharon F. (Shar) from AVON PARK, FL
Reviewed on 12/9/2021...

I'm sure things in places like this are much harder and more difficult than the movie portrays, but it was still a good movie.

3 of 3 member(s) found this review helpful.

Vicki H. (WNCadventurer)
Reviewed on 12/7/2021...

As a former counselor, one of my first jobs was counseling kids in a locked group home (foster kids who have a mental health diagnosis and risky behaviors). If you watch the children and staff in this movie closely, with an empathetic eye, you will see how childhood trauma - inflicted by the adults in their lives- monumentally affects children and how the trauma can reach into adulthood. It also gives a nod to the awesome foster parents + front-line residential workers out there who help mitigate a child's true and deep pain every single day. This movie also shows some realities of "residential" life - outbursts, meds, safety holds/de-escalation, isolation rooms, community meetings, group recreation, level drops, etc. As in the movie, I experienced a teen "aging out " of foster care who reacted the same way as the character per their
trauma from parental abandonment + fear of being thrown into the "real" world. Even with life skills training + assistance until 21 yo, making your way is indeed scary. This movie I hope encourages all adults to look below the surface of any child or teen they see "acting out" whether out in the community or in your extended family. Those behaviors can stem from trauma dished out by adults!
Hard topics are handled in the movie with enough warmth and humor to keep your heart from breaking. Protect all kids and honor your civic duty of reporting suspected abuse/neglect. Perhaps donate items to a residential center near you. Outdoor play equipment is always appreciated. Or dive in deeper and partner with the agency to landscape/garden with the kids to help remedy that awful "residential facility" look - which the kids indeed notice. Or simply just call them to see what they need! Your State has tens of thousands of foster kids waiting for your help. These kids exist. Please, I ask on their behalf, do what you can.

1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Edward M. from BELLBROOK, OH
Reviewed on 12/5/2020...

The title comes from the name of the mental facility where the disturbed teenagers are expected to stay for just 12 months, the hope being that most will be taken in by foster parents or returned to their own families. It begins with line staff supervisor Grace (Brie Larson) and fellow staffer Mason (John Gallagher Jr.) talking with new volunteer Nate (Rami Malek) about what to expect during the 12 months of his stay.
Not since the moving sequences between therapist and teen-aged patient in "Ordinary People" have I seen such an honest and frank approach to the mentally and emotionally disturbed—nor since the "Spitfire Grill" such a well-rounded portrait of a wounded healer. Grace is a natural counselor able to discern and compassionately reach out to those who are wounded. Were she religious, she might well become a compassionate minister. But in the third act of the film, it is she who must be healed, and how the process begins fills the viewer with renewed hope and a gladness that despite “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” life is good and full of promise for her, and possibly for some of the youth as well.

3 of 3 member(s) found this review helpful.