12 and Holding Movie Review 2005

Rudy (Donovan) and his fat buddy Leonard (Camacho) spend the night in their tree house, which is torched by bullies. Leonard is injured (he loses his sense of taste) but Rudy dies. His twin Jacob is barely able to cope (he already has self-esteem issues since a birthmark covers half his face), especially when confronted with his parents' grief and rage. Leonard's survival inspires him to lose weight and get in shape, much to the resentment of his obese parents. Meanwhile, their friend Malee (Weizenbaum) becomes precociously interested in one of her therapist mom's (Sciorra) patients, a hunky construction worker (Renner). First-rate work by all, with much uncomfortably honest depiction of adolescent bewilderment and fear.

Distribution

Not Yet Released

Running time 95 minutes.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Family, Death, Adolescence, Fires

Screenplay

Anthony Cipriano

Cast

Zoe Weizenbaum, Jeremy Renner, Conor Donovan, Jesse Camacho, Annabella Sciorra, Linus Roache, Jayne Atkinson, Marcia DeBonis, Michael Fuchs

Cinematography

Romeo Tirone

Director

Michael Cuesta

Music

Pierre Foldes

Other

Kane Platt, Lora Baxter, Lucio Seixas

Producer

Leslie Urdang, Michael Cuesta, Brian Bell, Jenny Schweitzer, Serenade Films, Canary Films