Twelve and Holding

Toronto International Film Festival Program Book
2005

Twelve and Holding
Michael Cuesta
USA, 2005
English
90 minutes
Colour/HDCAM
Production Company: Serenade Films/Canary Films/Echo Lake Productions
Executive Producer: Michael Nozik, Doug Mankoff, Andrew Spaulding, Frank Frattaroli, Mike Downey Producer: Leslie Urdang, Michael Cuesta, Brian Bell, Jenny Schweitzer
Screenplay: Anthony S. Cipriano
Cinematographer: Romeo Tirone
Editor: Kane Platt, Eric Carlson
Production Designer: Lucio Seixas
Sound: Tom Effinger
Music: Pierre Féldes
Principal Cast: Conor Donovan, Jesse Camacho, Zoe Weizenbaum, Jeremy Renner, Annabella Sciorra Production: Serenade Films

Michael Cuesta’s 2001 feature L.I.E. signalled a welcome sophistication in dealing with queasy social issues all but absent from recent American cinema. Disillusioned by teen-film clichés, he has an uncanny ability to enter the actual, darkest places of adolescent needs and desires without being exploitative or arch. And he is one of cinema's smartest critical observers of suburban life, demonstrating how its closed loop inherently creates tragedy.

One imagines L.I.E. might have reframed how we discuss teenaged sexuality, had it not been released simultaneously with that great destroyer of nuanced debate, the September 11 attacks in New York City. Yet Cuesta’s achievement stands—along with a bouquet of awards for his efforts.

Like L.I.E., the universe constructed for us in Twelve and Holding is seen through the eyes of people who are no longer children but not yet adults. Their motivations are frank, somewhat primordial and often frightening, yet these young people never become symbols of moral nihilism. Their actions are consistent and psychologically organic, their lives invested with dignity and pathos.

This subtlety would be wasted were it not for Cuesta’s elicitation of particularly fine performances from the core trio of young actors: Conor Donovan as Jacob, Zoe Weizenbaum as Malee and Jesse Camacho as Leonard. All three are rocked by the death of Jacob’s popular, athletic twin brother Rudy (also played by Donovan), who perishes in a treehouse fire set by local bullies. Jacob, an introverted young man with a huge birthmark on his face, becomes a mean-spirited plotter, intent on avenging his brother’s death by destroying his killers. Malee becomes obsessed with one of her psychotherapist mother’s patients, Gus (a sad, beautiful performance from Jeremy Renner); she dolls herself up and flirts in cringe-worthy ways, but ends up unexpectedly helping the grieving man. Leonard is an obese young man who loses his sense of taste while escaping the burning tree house. He then battles with his equally obese mother about losing weight through forced exercise and, ultimately, an impromptu imprisonment.

Uncorked teenaged revenge fantasies, adolescent sexual predation and body-image wars in the suburbs. It’s nice to have you back, Mr. Cuesta.
—Noah Cowan