Twelve and Holding

This movie is done very well and definitely engaging to watch, but perhaps not quite to my taste.

This is a movie about a tight group of 4 children -- a precocious girl, an overweight boy, and twin brothers, the more out-going who is killed in an accident. The funeral starts the journey of understanding the lives of the remaining 3 -- not only how the family deals with the murdered son/brother, but how the overweight boy deals with his obesity, and how the young girl deals with her mother and absent father.

The heart of the movie really revolves around these near teenagers, and as a result, the coming-of-age experiences are highlighted. At times, I laughed awkwardly, probably out of embarrassment for one of the characters. Nothing wrong with this -- in fact, it's probably what the director was trying to achieve. I was also pulled into the bizarre logic the brother was going through -- through talks with his parents, and even more poignant, some of the very personal kid-to-kid conversations. The visual clues and the inter-actions to parents were all well chosen to create characters that were believable, 3-dimensional and full of conflict. Kudos to the director and actors on this fine work. In particular, the precocious young girl (Zoe Weizenbaum) was well-cast in a very strong, conflicted and convincing performance.

Overall -- well done. This is one of the best 'pre-teen-angst' movies I've seen in a long time.

This movie touches on a series of issues troubling America today seen thru the eyes of it's youth. The film shows us that problems in areas such as violence, guns, race issues and obesity are no longer limited to adults but play an active part amongst young people as well. The film centers around a group of 12 year old friends and their families. All with different problems which reflect on their parents short comings. The script is very well written and the acting is quite extraordinary throughout the entire film. The only real problem is that the movie feels a little too short, but perhaps it's better to quit while ones ahead. I'd recommend this film to anyone with an interest in human nature and all it's flaws.

Michael Cuesta (who previously directed the slick and grotesquely controversial "L.I.E" and is currently one of the masterminds behind Showtime's wildly entertaining and grotesque "Dexter") treads some very dangerous ground with "Twelve and Holding." Working with a solid script focusing on how three best friends cope with the accidental death of another friend (the more popular twin brother of one of the protagonists), he presents pre-adolescent characters with the psychologically complex motives of adults and we witness their pratfalls, tragedies, and heart wrenching moments in a the same type of voyeuristic manner usually reserved for more mature characters and audiences. Elements of classics like "Stand by Me" keep the film grounded even as some of the plot developments get a bit far-fetched.

The acting is a huge plus here, with Annabella Sciora (getting more and more enchanting and beautiful with age), Jayne Atkinson (brutal, honest, and gut-wrenching as the grieving mother of the dead child), and Connor Donovan (in duel leads as the dead boy and his conflicted twin brother) highlighting the excellent ensemble. Cuesta's surprisingly subtle direction somehow manages to avoid both the salacious tendencies of a Larry Clark film and the annoyingly overt quirkiness of similarly themed films like "Me and You and Everyone we Know" to deliver a profound and perplexing tale of coming-of-age, revenge and loneliness.

The minute this film started playing, I was hooked. The story follows three 12 year olds who are the normal kind of kids you expect to bump into in your neighbourhood. Each has their own issues, as do all 12 year olds, and it is not till an immensely tragic death amongst them occurs, that they start confronting their issues and start trying to deal with them in their own way. Each very different. The story unravels beautifully and there are times you feel like you need to look away, and start squirming with unease and shock, and times you literally burst out laughing and then cry as well.. Well, I did anyway. I would highly recommend this to pretty much everyone I know, I cant believe it slipped through the net, and I have only just seen it. An absolute gem. To say it is like Stand By Me is a bold statement, but a deserved one. Its of the same calibre. Watch it.

This is a haunting coming-of-age film about children, bound by a common, shocking tragedy, who struggle to get on with life and overcome their own troubling problems. Despite the severity of issues conveyed in this film's overlapping vignettes, it never becomes melodramatic. Artful screen writing and direction infuse humor in the telling of these children's stories---stories rich with characters who are colorful, but never contrived. All of the children provide very genuine, endearing performances---essential if the audience is going to empathize with them and their disturbing behavior. This movie will frequently make you uncomfortable---very uncomfortable. But no matter how horrifying and even monstrous these children's actions may be, they never lose their appealing and disarming qualities as children. These are very cool kids, even the most troubled, who easily win your affection.

During the course of the movie, one of the children queries the others by asking, "Do you know ninety-percent of people's problems are due to their inability to get over the past?" All of these children will be faced with this challenge. You hope all will overcome this obstacle, but sadly, not all of them will or should be able to get over their past.