Film Review: Short Term 12
TW for the film: child abuse, child sexual abuse, incest, suicide, self harm, care leavers, abortion
I can’t count how many times I have watched Short Term 12. I’ve watched it when I’m sad, broken and traumatised and I’ve watched it when I’m calm, happy and comfortable. I work on writing pieces with it playing in the background. I often listen to the soundtrack by Joel P West when I’m trying to concentrate on my academic work. I’m listening to it right now and I feel the love I have for this 2 hour piece of cinema pour onto the keyboard as I type. The film, and the soundtrack, comfort me in a way that I don’t often come across. It’s my go-to when I need to feel seen and understood.
Destin Cretton’s Short term 12 portrays surviving childhood sexual abuse in a way that I haven’t seen any other film do quite so well. The film , which features Brie Larson in her first major lead role, follows Grace, a child group-home worker in the USA who is trying to cope with the fallout of her own trauma. We are introduced to Grace and her partner/coworker Mason, her colleagues and the various kids coming in and out of the ‘short term’ group home. It turns out this short-term home turns out, in reality, to be a long-term home for many of the children, like 17 year-old Marcus, played by the now famous Lakeith Stanfield.
The reality, hardness and equal vulnerability of childhood in care are all shown in a beautiful way throughout the film. The children are smart, funny, kind and caring to one another. They are also angry, confused and terrified at how the world has been so cruel to them. But they’re not pitied. The kids are allowed to be themselves in all the dynamic ways that kids are. Things are more complicated by them being in care, and we see the pain that has been inflicted on them. But they are still trying, still persisting, despite it all. They become family for each other when family is mostly such an alien concept to them.
Alongside the stories of the children, the story centres on Grace. Grace is a caretaker and gives so much to the children at the home, and the film slowly tells us about what Grace is going through in her own head. Grace herself is a survivor of childhood abuse and we see the tight wheel of repression she has wound in her own mind slowly start to unravel throughout the film. I won’t go into specific detail, as I don’t want to spoil it for those who haven’t seen it, but there are three aspects I want to pick up on that I really identified with in Grace’s storyline.
The film conveys how lonely it is to survive childhood sexual abuse, especially incest. Even though she has a caring partner and coworkers, Grace still isolates herself constantly. Sometimes this can be good and healthy, like when she cycles home whenever she needs to think. But other times, this leads to her completely shutting off and shutting down from those that care for her. She struggles to let people in and to trust them. She only really lets her full loneliness and despair out when she’s alone. The scenes when she is in the shower really get me, as I recognise myself so much in them. She pretends she is okay when she is around other people. She is funny and sharp, she laughs and she functions in life perfectly. It is only when she is truly alone and she knows she is safe from anyone and everyone that she lets herself feel the pain and the hurt that is always there.
Another aspect that was interestingly and truthfully represented for me was the physical realities of surviving sexual trauma. Grace is seen frequently picking the skin around her thumb, especially when stressful and traumatic things happen. I do the exact same thing, and seeing it represented on screen was something I didn’t realise would be so validating. When I am in crisis or when I am under intense stress, I go to pick and bite the skin around my right thumb. I often do it without even noticing, just as Grace does, and find myself confused as I later start bleeding from my thumb. My partner keeps an eye on it when we’re together, but I remind him that it’ll happen when he’s gone, as I don’t even think about it anymore. It’s a habit of picking myself and grounding myself to show me I’m still really here.
She also panics during intimacy with her partner, and the suddenness of the panic really resonated with me. She ignores the hints of panic at first, although she has had a stressful day full of triggers. She wants to be with her partner, to let him touch her, so she carries on through what I can imagine are the foreshadows of a flashback. These foreshadows can feel like the shadow of a monster approaching you, or the pins and needles before your arm goes numb. In the film, her partner checks in on her and she says she’s ok. Then, in a sudden flashback she pushes him off her and punches him in the throes of her panic. It was so important to see the confusion and chaos that can happen in flashbacks. They often don’t make any ‘sense’ and we as survivors can often try to pretend that we are okay in the way Grace does, until we just can’t pretend anymore; our bodies take over and we go into survival mode. The care and understanding her partner ultimately shows was equally important, and to see Mason stroking Grace’s hair after her episode almost felt like I was having my own hair stroked.
The way Grace cares for others and projects herself onto others, especially the teenager Jayden (played by the amazing Kaitlyn Dever) is powerful and satisfying to see, especially with the conclusion we are ultimately given (no spoilers!). Grace sees herself so much in Jayden that she goes to extreme lengths to protect her. These lengths are often inappropriate, and that is made clear in the film, but the intense care and fierce protectiveness Grace has for Jayden, and ultimately for her younger self, is therapeutic to see. Grace sees a young girl in trouble and fights her hardest to save her. She may, at points, become somewhat ‘unhinged’ which was also so important to see. She is not ‘perfect’ and palatable all the time. She is messy and angry and confused, just as the kids are. She is scared but she is trying hard, and ultimately she finds her way to beginning to cope in a healthier way with what she lived through.
You can watch Short Term 12 on Amazon Video (it’s the only film I own on there), BFI player, Youtube, and on the 9th December will be available on BBC iPlayer (UK).
