Line #26 Film/ShortTerm12


1	[[quoteright:220:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/220px_short_term_12_0.jpg]]
2
3	->''"Here we go."''
4
5	''Short Term 12'' is an American indie drama released in 2013. It was directed by Creator/DestinDanielCretton, and is a feature-length adaptation of a short film Cretton had created in 2010.
6
7	The titular Short Term 12 is a home for at-risk teens, supervised primarily by young counselor Grace Howard (Creator/BrieLarson), her boyfriend Mason (Creator/JohnGallagherJr), with whom she is fairly distant, the sensible Jessica (Creator/StephanieBeatriz), and new hire Nate (Creator/RamiMalek). The film focuses on Grace and her relationships with her loved ones and the youth at the facility, including the suicidal Marcus (Creator/LakeithStanfield) and the spunky new intake Jayden (Creator/KaitlynDever), whose troubles increasingly begin to bring Grace's own past to mind.
8
9	----
10	!!Tropes:
11
12	* AbusiveParents:
13	** Jayden's father beats her, and the reason Grace becomes so sympathetic to her is that [[spoiler:Grace's own father sexually abused her in the past]].
14	** Marcus also details his "crazy" abusive mother, who beat him and forced him to sell things at 10, in a rap.
15	* ArtReflectsPersonality: Jayden is a talented artist and writes a troubling story about an exploitative friendship between a shark and an octopus, which Grace correctly suspects is because her father is abusive.
16	* BatterUp: Grace and Jayden use a baseball to trash the car of Jayden's father.
17	* Bittersweet17: Marcus is unstable because he's upset at having to leave the facility once he turns 18.
18	* BookEnds: The film starts and ends with the line staff telling stories about the kids in front of the facility before they are interrupted by Sammy sprinting out of the facility.
19	* BreakTheCutie: Jayden's sketchbook story about the little octopus getting its arms chopped off one by one by the shark. It's really an analogy to herself.
20	* BreakUpMakeUpScenario: Mason and Grace temporarily break up over her inability to open up to him about her problems. The epilogue implies she finally musters up the strength and reveals her DarkAndTroubledPast to him and they get back together.
21	* BungledSuicide: Marcus is a troubled teen who eventually tries to kill himself, but he recovers.
22	* TheCobblersChildrenHaveNoShoes: Grace works with troubled children and tries to get them to open up to her about their problems. However, she cannot do the same to Mason when it comes to her own problems.
23	* CommonalityConnection: Grace and Jayden connect over their shared interest in drawing. Later developments reveal that there's another [[spoiler:commonality as both were abused by their fathers.]]
24	* DaddyDidntShow: Jayden has a breakdown after her dad doesn't come to pick her up from the facility.
25	* DontMakeMeTakeMyBeltOff: Jayden's father habitually chastises her with his belt.
26	* DysfunctionJunction: To be expected given that it's a film about a group home for troubled youth. The kids Short Term 12 is housing all have their own personal and familial issues, while Grace's own troubles begin to bleed into her work and cause her relationships to unravel.
27	* FosterKid: Mason is a positive example, having been fostered by a loving couple along with many other children, and turned out well because of it.
28	* GenderBlenderName: Jayden considers her name a masculine one because of Creator/JadenSmith.
29	* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: PlayedWith. [[spoiler:Grace was impregnated by her dad, and got an abortion because of it.]] Grace is convinced she'll get an abortion when she finds out she's pregnant with Mason's child but later decides not to go through with it as she's in a better place now.
30	* HereWeGoAgain: Said verbally by Grace at the end when Sammy tries to escape the facility again, same as he did [[BookEnds in the opening scene]].
31	* ImportantHaircut: Marcus wants to shave his head, as it's where his mother used to beat him, and breaks down after he realizes that there's no physical evidence left of her abuse.
32	* IntimateArtistry: Played for laughs when Mason and Grace draw portraits of each other. Played straight when Grace and Jayden bond over doing the same at the facility.
33	* KeyUnderTheDoormat: Jayden gets into her father's house using a spare key hidden under the doormat. Grace observes her and later uses the same trick to get into the house herself to get Jayden out.
34	* LudicrousPrecision: Mason tells Grace down to the hour how much time has passed since they last had sex. It's 9 days and 13 hours.
35	* MissingMom: Grace reveals to Jayden that her mom died and she came to live with her dad.
36	* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Mason's PottyFailure incident from times ago is brought up by kids who weren't even there yet when it happened.
37	* PercussiveTherapy:
38	** Grace and Jayden thrash an inflatable dog after Jayden has a violent outburst, which helps the latter calm down.
39	** Later, they [[spoiler:smash Jayden's father's car with a [[BatterUp baseball bat]] instead of beating the man up]] after bonding over their shared abuse.
40	* ThePlace: Titled after the facility.
41	* PottyFailure: The film starts with Mason recounting an embarrassing story about pooping his pants while on gate duty to Nate.
42	* PricelessMingVase: The new touch-response lamp on the desk of Grace's boss. It does not survive the third act.
43	* RuleOfThree: Someone runs out of the facility, triggering the alarm in the process, thrice -- Sammy does it in the BookEnds, and Jayden does it in the middle.
44	* SecretCompartment: Marcus hides his weed inside his mattress. Grace is smart enough to find it.
45	* SelfHarm: Jayden cuts herself. Grace also used to, and they bond over both being cutters.
46	* ShowerOfAngst: We see Grace sitting in her shower in a TroubledFetalPosition after receiving the news about being pregnant.
47	* SpitefulSpit: Jayden spits in Nate's face while he and Mason try to hold her down during a violent outburst.
48	* TantrumThrowing: Grace takes the lamp from her boss' desk and smashes it on the street out of frustration over his decision to let Jayden's [[AbusiveParents abusive father]] pick her up.
49	* TroubledFetalPosition: We repeatedly see Sammy lying in his bed in this position. He really seems uncomfortable with his situation.
50	* TroubledTeen: The film is about a temporary group home for at-risk youth. While most of the residents are troubled teens, the film focuses on two: Marcus, a suicidal seventeen-year-old who grew up with an abusive mother, and Jayden, an aloof young girl who self-harms and violently or verbally lashes out because her father is also abusive.

Context Film / ShortTerm12