Short Term 12

dvd of the week

In one of the biggest hits of Sundance, a revelatory Brie Larsen plays the manager of a half-way house for troubled teenagers. Her character is heroically resilient, warm and funny, and she is damaged by her own adolescence and confused by her love for her co-worker, played by John Gallagher Jr. Her story is woven into those of, particularly, two of the residents played by Keith Stanfield, as a young black man uncertain about leaving the home, and Kaitlyn Dever, as an angry and abused girl Brie over-identifies with. Both Dustin Cretton’s screenplay and direction are moving and raw.