Film

Short Term 12

Name: Short Term 12
Genre: Drama
Released: 2013
Cast: Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr., Kaitlyn Dever, Rami Malek, LaKeith Stanfield

Social drama

A quietly devastating character study set inside a residential facility for at-risk teens, told largely through the eyes of the young staff who are barely older than their charges. Brie Larson anchors it with aching, unguarded restraint. It's intimate, low-budget, and unsentimental — closer to a shift diary than a message movie — for anyone who wants empathy without tidy resolution.

TMDb rating

3.9

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like quiet, character-first dramas where the emotional weight builds through small, unshowy moments between people who are good at their jobs but not good at their own lives.

Skip it if you want a clear plot engine or steady forward momentum, since this is a film about mood and people, and some scenes linger on hard, raw emotion without much release.

What it asks of you: Roughly an hour and a half of patient attention, with long handheld scenes, plenty of silence, and a tone that stays heavy rather than lifting into easy comfort.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Moonlight2016

Barry Jenkins tracks one boy's fractured coming-of-age across three chapters with the same tenderness and refusal to sentimentalize pain that makes Short Term 12 work — beauty found inside hardship, never used to erase it.

But Its impressionistic structure and hushed pacing ask for real patience; if you want plot momentum, this will feel slow.

The Florida Project2017

Sean Baker turns a budget motel outside Disney World into its own foster-adjacent universe, seen through a six-year-old's eyes — the same instinct to find joy and danger tangled together in kids failed by adults.

But The loose, sun-bleached style has almost no conventional plot, and the ending is abrupt by design — some find it frustrating rather than devastating.

Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire2009

A rawer, angrier cousin to Short Term 12 — a teenager surviving abuse finds a lifeline through one adult who actually sees her, with a performance from Gabourey Sidibe that refuses easy pity.

But It's considerably harsher and more explicit about abuse; the tonal warmth of Short Term 12 is largely absent here.

Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Short Term 12

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The 400 Blows1959

Both films watch a child failed by adults with clear eyes and no melodrama, trusting small, specific behaviour over big speeches — Truffaut did it first, and Short Term 12 inherits his patience directly.

Truffaut's breakthrough follows a neglected boy sliding toward a juvenile detention center with unsentimental, clear-eyed compassion — the same refusal to look away from institutional failure, six decades earlier.

But Black-and-white, subtitled, and shot in the loose grammar of the French New Wave — a real adjustment if you've never watched pre-1970s foreign cinema.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower2012

A gentler, more mainstream take on teenage trauma and the friendships that make it survivable — the emotional throughline of Short Term 12 without quite as much weight on your chest.

But It leans more toward YA sweetness than institutional realism; the stakes and grit are noticeably softened.

It's Kind of a Funny Story2010

Set inside a psychiatric ward instead of a group home, it finds real comedy and real tenderness in a similarly overwhelmed, underfunded institution — a lighter companion piece with a surprising amount of heart.

But It's noticeably softer and more crowd-pleasing; if you wanted the unflinching realism of Short Term 12, this pulls its punches.

Manchester by the Sea2016

Casey Affleck's performance is a study in the same kind of buried grief Brie Larson plays so quietly here — someone who's built a whole functioning life on top of something unresolved.

But It's slower and colder in tone, with less warmth or hope threaded through the sadness.

Beautiful Boy2018

A different institution — addiction rather than foster care — but the same exhausted, loving vigilance of adults trying to hold a broken system together for one more day, one more kid.

But It's a fairly conventional prestige drama and occasionally tips into the kind of sentimentality Short Term 12 mostly avoids.

American Honey2016

A sprawling, wilder version of the same idea — young people failed by every institution forming their own makeshift family on the road, shot with a restless, documentary-like eye.

But At nearly three hours with a loose, meandering structure, it demands real patience and offers little narrative resolution.

Boyhood2014

Filmed over twelve years, it captures the slow, unglamorous accumulation of a difficult childhood with the same patient realism Short Term 12 brings to a single facility — proof ordinary life is drama enough.

But Nothing dramatic really happens moment to moment; it's a long, quiet experiment rather than a tightly built story.

The Bear2022

Both are about people barely holding themselves together who are nonetheless the only stable thing in someone else's day — the caretaking-under-collapse structure is identical, just moved from social work to a sandwich shop.

A kitchen instead of a group home, but the same exhausted young adults holding a chaotic, underfunded operation together through sheer stubborn love, with grief bleeding into every shift.

But It's faster, funnier, and more stylised — kitchen-set chaos and needle-drops replace the hushed realism, which might feel like tonal whiplash.

Aging Out2004

Short Term 12's writer-director drew on his own years working in a group home; this documentary shows the unfiltered version of exactly what he was dramatizing — same subject, no actors, no ending arranged for you.

A quietly devastating documentary following real teenagers as they leave the foster system at eighteen — the exact real-world hinge Short Term 12 fictionalizes, without a script to soften any of it.

But It's low-budget, dated in style, and hard to find outside library or archive access — this isn't a polished streaming watch.