/Film Interview: ‘Short Term 12’ Director Destin Daniel Cretton
Maybe you saw the trailer forShort Term 12,where someone called it"a shining example of what cinema is all about." That was me, and I was not overstating the film’s quality.Destin Daniel Cretton’s film about young people watching over troubled kids is simply that good.Maybe even better.
Brie Larson(Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) andJohn Gallagher Jr.(The Newsroom) star as two young adults who put their own personal problems aside every morning when they go to a halfway house for despondent young kids called Short Term 12. Cretton not only creates rich, realistic characters in every single role, but they make you laugh one instant and cry the next, with the emotions never feeling forced or out of place. It’s about as great a movie as I can remember seeing in a long time.
Which meant I jumped at the chance to sit down and chat with the writer and director of the film. We talked about the pressures of the film’s praise, balancing tones, when he knew the film would all come together, his methods of filmmaking, a deleted scene that really moved him and the difficulties of being a writer/director.
Short Term 12opens on a limited basis on August 23 and expands from there. Read our interview and seek it out. You will not be disappointed./Film:So I’ve been playing this game since I saw your movie. It’s called “Does Anybody Not Like Short Term 12?” I have not found one person. Have you found one person?
That’s it?
The closest I got was yesterday when a couple more people saw the movie and one said “I really liked it until the last ten minutes.” I’m like “What? The last ten minutes are amazing.” So that was the closest I’ve been.
The stuff in the house.
Does the good reception put added pressure on you?
When did you know that all of these pieces came together?
It was still an early cut of the movie, but already no sound mix or anything, at the end of that screening I had guys coming up to me who I know had never seen an indie movie before and didn’t give a shit about the subject matter, but coming up to me with still tears in their eyes and having real conversations about stuff. That’s when I was like “Thank goodness that something about this is really connecting to people.”
One of the things I loved about the movie is the way that you can effortlessly go between tones. Like you said “laughing one minute, silent the next, crying the next. Scared.” How do you work with that?
You said most of your filmmaking is mathematical. Can you expand upon that a little bit?
When you’re on set how does that internal dialog go?
You talk about payoffs and there’s a lot of great payoffs and big secrets that you keep close. Does that fall in a mathematical way? How do you say “Here’s where I want you to know that this one thing about Grace”?
This is a film that you drew from your personal experiences; you’re very close to it. Did any of the actors do something that really surprised you?
Was there any pressure at any point to change the title?
This is your second narrative feature. Ideally what do you want to see happen out of this?
Short Term 12opens in New York and Los Angeles August 23. It expands to Phoenix, DC, Philly, Boston and Berkley on August 30, Seattle, Denver, Dallas, Plano and Honolulu on September 6 and Detroit, St. Louis, Indy, Houston and San Diego on September 13.
