The kids help get the film past its messy, low-budget look, aided by a strong ensemble of familiar adult faces.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 30, 2006

It doesn't sound like a barrel of laughs, but [director Michael] Cuesta finds wry humour in tragic situations while at the same time thickening the air with quiet foreboding.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 14, 2006

... a film that never quite equals the sum of its many intriguing parts.

| Nov 9, 2006

The film careens from crisis to crisis. Yet each time it threatens to spin out of control, [director Michael] Cuesta demonstrates a firm hand that keeps us leaning in with interest.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Aug 6, 2006

Twelve isn't always easy to watch. But it feels emotionally authentic -- not exploitive, not farfetchedly quirky.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 8, 2006

Raw and unpredictable. It's also compelling.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 16, 2006

Flawed but compassionate study of kids struggling with grown-up issues without much adult supervison.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 16, 2006

Cuesta entices extraordinary performances out of his young actors.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 9, 2006

One of those American indie films that can be filed into the diagnostic category of Facile with Delusions of Profundity.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 9, 2006

Follows the youngsters over the course of a tumultuous year, during which time Cuesta and screenwriter Anthony Cipriano succeed in making the audience care desperately whether they're okay and whether the adults in their lives do the right thing.

| Jun 8, 2006

These are strange, heartbreaking, emotionally wounded kids. I found myself rooting for them. But the adults are caricatures, [and] the film feels condescending in parts.

Full Review | Jun 5, 2006

Tough and troubling drama.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 2, 2006

Illuminating and unsettling.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 2, 2006

That a film about kids dares to be so without being exploitive or easy is both astonishing and admirable, if also shockingly harsh at times.

| Jun 2, 2006

The film is as oblivious as the adults.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 2, 2006

Twelve and Holding could have been a series of horror stories, but the filmmakers and their gifted young actors somehow negotiate the horrors and generate a deep sympathy.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 2, 2006

Cuesta prizes curiosity and perception over conflict resolution. He likes the way kids take their cues from adults and the ways they revolt against them.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 2, 2006

The trio of youths at the heart of first-time screenwriter Anthony S. Cipriano's script do shocking, outrageous things, events seemingly arising not so much from genuine character motivations as from desire for the film to shock and be outrageous.

Full Review | Jun 2, 2006

The kids deliver uniformly solid, occasionally remarkable performances.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 1, 2006

While the film doesn't have the same emotional impact of his acclaimed debut, Cuesta is a steady, self-assured filmmaker who knows how to command an audience's attention.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 31, 2006