SXSW Film Fest, Day 7: "Short Term 12" & " V/H/S/2"

Director: Destin Daniel Cretton

Stars: Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr., Kaitlyn Dever, Rami Malek, Keith Stanfield, Kevin Hernandez, Melora Walters

Running time: 96 minutes

✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭

Score: 10/10

Short Term 12 has many scenes that resonate to the core, but there's one in particular where writer-director Destin Daniel Cretton lets his creative mastery shine.

In the eponymous foster care facility, 17-year-old Marcus (Keith Stanfield) is only a few weeks away from his 18th birthday and subsequent release back into normal society. Up until this point, he's been quiet and resistant to close interactions with anyone else inside Short Term 12. His unknown backstory comes to light, though, during a raw, profane, and powerful rap he's just written about the neglectful relationship he had with his drug-involved mother. As counselor Mason (The Newsroom's John Gallagher, Jr.) beats a drum alongside of Marcus and listens on with compassionate ears, the teen spills his heart out the only way he knows how to: through the written, rhythmic word.

It's those kinds of earnest shots of rich characterization that define Short Term 12, an all-access look into the lives of both the underprivileged kids who've done nothing to deserve their situations and the sympathetic adults who help them despite having their own issues to worry about. Calling the shots inside Short Term 12 is Grace (Brie Larson), Mason's on-the-low girlfriend who's brilliant when it comes to connecting with disenchanted youngsters. She's also harboring some dark inner demons, and when a new girl (Kaitlyn Dever) checks in and slowly reveals that she's the victim of parental abuse, Grace's ability to relate to such trauma points the imaginary "Help Me" sign towards her.

The most impressive aspect of Cretton's exceptional story is how he never teeters into melodrama. The film's heavier scenes are perfectly pitched, hitting high-points of emotional eruption without going too far. His technique for keeping Short Term 12 grounded? Finding the right times to add naturalistic levity. Taking its poignant subject matter into account, Cretton's knack for deriving big laughs from likable characters simply being themselves is apparent throughout the film—there's not a single false moment or forced joke.

Which, of course, wouldn't be possible if not for his altogether spot-on cast. Given the most to work with, Larson is Short Term 12's breakout. Having already shown big range in diverse projects like Rampart and 21 Jump Street, she's able to blend her comedic timing, dramatic chops, and previously unseen explosiveness into a multi-layered character who's ultimately the film's center. Short Term 12 won the Grand Jury Award for SXSW's narrative competition earlier this week, guaranteeing that it'll continue to win festival audiences over (yesterday's screening ended with nearly a full minute's worth of applause)—meaning, Larson's agent should anticipate an influx of phone calls and emails in the coming months.

Films of Short Term 12's ilk are what festivals like SXSW are all about: little productions with large amounts of quality in search for people to discover them. There are, naturally, exceptions in every fest, but when something like Cretton's film comes along, it's a reminder of why long screening lines and late nights working on laptops are all worth it.

Directors: Simon Barrett, Adam Wingard, Eduardo Sanchez, Gregg Hale, Timo Tjahjanto, Gareth Huw Evans, Jason Eisener
Stars: Adam Wingard, Lawrence Levine, L. C. Holt, Kelsy Abbott, Hannah Hughes
Running time: 95 minutes
✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✩✩✩
Score: 7/10

By the end of V/H/S/2, the quickly made sequel to last year's indie horror sensation V/H/S, it's clear that the producers—namely, returning filmmakers Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett—are trying to build a mythology and, through that, establish a franchise. Like its predecessor, V/H/S/2 is an anthology of shorts strung together by a wraparound story and all shot in the found-footage style; unlike V/H/S, however, this second go-round, executed with a larger scope, is much leaner: The 95-minute duration includes four segments, as opposed to the five that clocked in at just a shade under two hours). Which, once again, leaves the framing tale little room to develop.

Give Barrett (who wrote and directed the connective "Tape 49") credit, though: As this film's pair of private investigators search a creepy, empty house for a missing college student, they come across, for the acknowledgement of V/H/S fans, several visual references to the first film while watching the random video tapes stacked in one of the rooms. Even though it's just as anti-climactic as the V/H/S wraparound, "Tape 49" at least feels like it has a purpose, whereas last year's "Tape 56" had the air of a tacked-on, underwhelming throwaway.

The fact that the V/H/S/2 team pads the four segments with a purposeful thread lends the film an urgency and direction that V/H/S lacked—in that regard, it's superior. Yet the issue of unevenness persists. Two of the film's efforts—"Safe Haven," co-directed by Gareth Huw Evans (The Raid: Redemption) and Indonesian provocateur Timo Tjahjanto, and Hobo With a Shotgun helmer Jason Eisener's "Slumber Party Alien Abduction"—are ferocious knockouts. The other two—Wingard's "Phase 1 Clinical Trials" and "A Ride in the Park," from collaborators Eduardo Sanchez (co-director of The Blair Witch Project) and Gregg Hale—are reasonably enjoyable trifles.

Saving the best for last, V/H/S/2 begins with "Phase 1 Clinical Trials," about a guy who undergoes surgery and becomes a test subject of sorts for a new robotic eyeball. It's too bad for him, though, that said eyeball gives him the ability to see ghosts. Wingard relies heavily upon the old turn-around-and-see-something-freaky jump scare tactic, surrounding a few effective jolts with a growing lack of surprise and an abrupt conclusion. "A Ride in the Park," meanwhile, operates on a clever idea that, it's hard to believe, hasn't been done before: A biker riding with a helmet-cam gets attacked by a zombie, turns into a flesh-eater, and starts devouring everyone in his path. Sanchez and Hale's living dead romp charges up once a band of ghouls disrupt a little girl's birthday party, but, like "Clinical Trials," its resolution is unsatisfying.

Especially when compared to the epic "Safe Haven," an ambitious, expanded, and masterfully made death-blow that sets the new precedent for which any future V/H/S segments—or any horror shorts, for that matter—must strive. Four young documentarians gain access into an Indonesian commune known as Paradise Gates, the home of a cult leader and his flock of subservient men, women, and children. What starts off as a moody investigation piece gradually explodes into a crescendo of absolute mayhem, complete with disemboweled bodies, suicide, demonic possession, and a doomsday finale that's incredibly batshit. Evans and Tjhajanto are clearly working with more creative firepower than their peers—everything about "Safe Haven" feels of a higher caliber, almost as if it's from a different movie altogether.

"Slumber Party Alien Abduction," the film's final segment, has more in common with the original V/H/S film's last portion, the frantic haunted house piece "10/31/98." As seen in Hobo With a Shotgun and his The ABCs of Death contribution, "Y is for Youngbuck," the Canadian-born Eisener doesn't go for subtlety or slow burns. He's a wild child, and "Alien Invasion Slumber Party" is every bit as unruly and exciting as Hobo With a Shotgun lovers would expect.

At first, it's The Goonies meets Jackass, with a group of rambunctious teenagers pranking one's older sister while the parents are away—the funniest bit involves water pistols filled with urine. Right before the sister and her boyfriend are about to revel in their successful payback, malevolent extra-terrestrials (nicely obscured and made all the more unnerving by Eisener's lighting and framing techniques) turn the sleepover into an extended outdoor chase sequence with multiple payoffs. Eisener deserves bonus points for finding a unique way to shoot POV cinema: The alien scenes are all captured by a camera that's strapped to the kids' little dog.

The energy and sheer ballsiness that ignite in "Safe Haven" and bleed into "Alien Abduction Slumber Party" show how dynamic these V/H/S movies can be if the filmmakers go for broke. Had "Clinical Trials" and "A Ride in the Park" been given similar aspirations, V/H/S/2 could've been astounding. As it stands, the omnibus follow-up is an admirable, marked improvement that benefits from containing two of the best horror films, short or feature-length, to come around in years.