Playing Leonard, an overweight kid who attempts to wrest his future health from his mom, Jesse Camacho almost devours Michael Cuesta’s coming-of-age drama “12 and Holding.” The film looks at three ‘tween friends seeking personal transformation in the aftermath of a bullying incident.
Leonard’s plight is touching and timely, but he’s not alone in this flawed but compassionate study of kids struggling with grown-up issues without much adult supervison.
In 2001, the writer-director Cuesta debuted with “L.I.E.” The story of a bright, disaffected teen and a pedophile living in Long Island, N.Y., was as unpleasant as it was impressive. Taking on the queasy dance of predator and prey gave “L.I.E.” a realistic veneer even as it conducted itself more like a structured amorality play.
Five years later, Cuesta returns with his second film. In the meantime, he’d plied his trade on HBO’s now-defunct series “Six Feet Under.”
At the start of the film, Jacob Carges (Conor Donovan) and twin brother Rudy are racing toward a treehouse and away from a couple of thuggish kids.
It’s clear from the brothers’ interactions that Rudy is the alpha pup of the duo. Ironically, he pretty much bullies the more passive Jacob into fighting their pint-size predators.
When disaster strikes, their parents descend into grief – a disappearing act that leaves Jacob to feed his obsession. Soon he’s making the long journey to where one of the bullies is incarcerated.
Written by first-time screenwriter Andrew S. Cipriano, these scenes of jailhouse confrontation are the film’s weakest. It’s not that children don’t have profound inner lives, but their ability to articulate them so well invites doubt.
Like “L.I.E.,” this rough fable also traverses dicey sexual territory.
This time it’s not a creep hungering for a child but a kid trying to seduce an adult: Malee, the daughter of a divorced psychotherapist (Annabella Sciorra), develops a crush on her mother’s client Gus (Jeremy Renner).
Zoë Weizenbaum’s character is too open and lonesome to be a bad seed. And her fixation initially seems more rite of passage than scary. But our denial about the problem doesn’t hold a candle to the blinkering of Gus.
Like friends Leonard and Jacob, Malee takes her feelings too far.
There’s a reason why the movie’s title has the ring of a card game. Each child gambles with his or her life. Here are three children unraveling and re-creating themselves in the wake of unexpected death.
The one kid without an on-screen parent sits in a cell. Yet parental presence isn’t the same as parental guidance.
Rated R, “12 and Holding” is one of those movies that features kids but isn’t appropriate for them. Yes, children have complicated inner lives full of sexual desire, shocking self-awareness, cruelty and calculation.
“Twelve and Holding” speaks to our hankering to listen in on those interior monologues, even if they’re a bit overwritten.
“12 and Holding”
R for some violence and sexual content involving minors, and for language|1 hour, 30 minutes|’TWEEN DRAMA|Directed by Micheal Cuesta; written by Anthony S. Cipriano; photography by Romeo Tirone; starring Conor Donovan, Jesse Camacho, Zoe Weizenbaum, Linus Roache, Annabella Sciorra, Jeremy Renner |Opens today at the Esquire.
