12 and Holding is a 2005 American coming-of-age drama film directed by Michael Cuesta and starring Conor Donovan, Jesse Camacho, Zoe Weizenbaum, and Jeremy Renner.
[3] 12-year-olds Rudy Carges and his overweight friend Leonard Fisher spend the night inside their treehouse after teenage bullies Jeff and Kenny threaten to destroy it.
Rudy's twin brother Jacob, a boy with a huge birthmark, decides to seek revenge against the bullies.
The boys' female friend Malee tries to befriend an adult named Gus, a grief-stricken patient of her therapist mother Carla.
Malee begins visiting her estranged father and Leonard's family finally starts eating healthily.
The website's consensus reads, "This shocking pre-teen drama manages, through realistic performances and a sense of empathy, to avoid exploitation and instead deliver something honest and haunting.
[5] In a review for Slant Magazine, Keith Uhlich criticized "Anthony S. Cipriano’s contrivance-heavy screenplay and Michael Cuesta’s Six Feet Under-tutelaged direction", saying the film "comes off as something of a neo-con paranoid fantasy, its wayward trio of suburban youth standing in for the ills of America".