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What To Watch Thursday is Overdose’s weekly film injection: every Thursday we will tell you which cinematographic pearls can’t be missed! This week, it’s all about the kids.
Short Term 12
Anticipation: Wise-cracking Grace (Brie Larson) and Mason (John Gallagher Jr.) not only live together, they both work at Short Term 12, a refuge centre for troubled kids. Humour is a tool they use to deal with the heavy stuff at work but Grace herself is going through a bad patch and there’s growing tension between the young couple.
Appreciation: The central pair do well but I found the stories of the centre’s fucked up kids far more interesting. It’s these kids you end up caring about the most. Not through any overwrought drama but just simple, toned down, good acting. There’s Marcus (Keith Stanfield), almost too old now to stay at the centre, with a look in his eyes early on that pretty much tells all you need to know about how that’s affecting him. Stanfield also pulls off a hugely powerful scene in which he raps about his abusive, drug-pushing mother. There’s no down-with-kids-thing going on here, it’s simply Marcus expressing his hurt and anger the best way he knows how. And then you have sullen Jayden (Kaitlyn Dever), a new arrival, whose smart-ass attitude crumbles exquisitely over time.
This is Destin Cretton’s second feature-length film and I was impressed with his generosity as a director towards even his minor characters. For instance, newbie supervisor Nate (Rami Malek) struggles at first but Cretton also has him sharing a fleeting moment of tenderness with one of the younger kids – blink and you’ll miss it. And if that doesn’t get you, be prepared for the saddest octopus story you’ll ever hear.
Short Term 12
Length: 96 min.
Verdict: ★★★★ – Thoughtful, smart and intentionally low-key.
Where to see: Kriterion, Pathe City, Pathe Tuschinski, The Movies.
What Maisie Knew
Anticipation: There’s lot of buzz about this film, a modern retelling of the classic Henry James novel. Julianne Moore and Steve Coogan play the irresponsible parents that are battling for custody of Maisie one minute, and deserting her for Italy and rock tours the next. The effortlessly viewable Alexander Skarsgård is thrown in for good measure but it’s Onata Aprile’s performance, as Maisie, that everyone’s raving about. Buzz aside, I wasn’t that blown away by the idea of this family drama or the trailer, and I’d never heard of the directing pair behind it, Scott McGehee and David Siegel – you neither?
Appreciation: And after seeing it, well, of course I was won over by that sweet little Maisie. By her inimitable, irrepressible, unconditional love for her parents who ‘don’t deserve her’, and the stand-in carers who come to her rescue time and time again. And then there’s Maisie’s clothes. Her assorted range of headdresses. And the shoes Moore wears as her character totters off to her tour bus one more time. No really, there’s some serious styling going on in this film, folks. Even Coogan doesn’t look half bad after they’ve worked their wonders.
What Maisie Knew
Length: 95 min.
Verdict: ★★★★ – Perfectly styled and a minor miracle: a child actor that doesn’t get on your tits.
Where to see: Cafe 16cc, Pathe City, Pathe Tuschinski, Cinecenter, The Movies.
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