Thirteen Review:

Catherine Hardwicke’s Thirteen is an unfeigned and disturbing film about the pressure of adolescence in the current generation of thongs, tongue rings, and experimentation. The film is stellar, provocative and more than anything real, whether some want to admit it or not. The balance of also showing a parent’s side of the subject also excels from the writing and a brilliant performance by Holly Hunter.

The film opens with the introduction of Tracy (The Missing’s Evan Rachel Wood), a sweet thirteen year old that is starting middle school in Los Angeles, California. Tracy lives with her mother Melanie (Hunter), who is a divorced hairdresser, and her older teenage brother, Mason (Brady Corbet). The family lives in a house that Melanie can not afford, in which she is also continuously too nice in letting anyone crash for the night. While at her first day of school, Tracy is stunned when the most popular girl in school, Evie (Nikki Reed), crosses her path. Evie’s body contains tons of makeup, piercings, and flashy clothes that not only turns the guys’ heads, but also makes the girls envy her presence. Tracy soon leaves her “ordinary” friends to become best friends with Evie. From drugs, shopping, piercings, stealing, and experimenting sexuality, these two teenagers do it all right under Melanie’s nose. As Tracy becomes a temperamental know-it-all to her mother, the family’s limits are tested due to her sudden change because of adolescent pressures.

Nikki Reed, who plays the manipulative teenager Evie, also co-wrote the film’s screenplay with director Catherine Hardwicke, which is based off her real life experiences as a teenager. The two divulge the whole upcoming of the script and decisions involved throughout the DVD’s commentary. The script itself is shockingly full of dismay that becomes at times repetitive, but is still a solid piece of writing. Hardwicke’s direction is grainy from the original 16mm film, but her choices are striking and vivid.

The whole cast is terrific in the film, as already mentioned Hunter is great, but a star is also born in the difficult portrayal of Tracy by young Evan Rachel Wood.

Though at times some of the content in Thirteen is taken to extreme and repeats itself, the film stricken and more than anything compelling.

Picture & Audio

The film at first was shot on 16mm, then transferred to 35mm and is now transferred to the digital. Thirteen was shot disruptly, in which some of the choices by the director are shaky and very dark. The transfer of the film is clean with no scratches, but there are moments, especially the scenes where Hunter’s character is ripping up the floor, that could have been brighten just a little.

The sound of the disc is presented in Dolby Surround 5.1. For the most part, the sound in the film is clear, but there are certain moments of dialogue that can barely be heard due to the low-voiced delivery of the actors. The disc also contains audio in Spanish and French.

Extras

Audio Commentary
• Director/Co-Writer Catherine Hardwicke, and Co-Writer/Actress Nikki Reed, Actors Evan Rachel Wood and Brady Corbet

The commentary on the disc is insightful, which Hardwicke, co-writer Reed, and the actors give depth into the production. The group actually laughs and cuts jokes at times, which becomes a little annoying, but the commentary is still effective. Hardwicke talks about how the script between her and Reed came about, with the two actually intending on writing a teen comedy at first. Hardwicke also divulges about how much a boost the film got once Holly Hunter signed on, because at first producers thought that material was way too risky. The actors give comments about how Hardwicke’s simple freedom as a director allow each of them to bring their own intensity to the characters, even though she admits having to tone them down a bit. Through the commentary, the three young actors also reflect to knowing their surroundings, and give their thoughts to the pressure of being a teenager. Brady Corbet, who plays the brother Mason, speaks briefly about the media being a big influence on kids these days.

The Making of Thirteen
This is a six-minute behind the scene featurette that contains interviews with the cast and crew and tells how the film came about. This is the chance to listen to Holly Hunter talk about her notions of the film’s subject matter, since the others are divulged very well in the commentary.

Deleted Scenes
There are ten deleted scenes from the film on the disc that are pretty much all good scenes or good extensions of scenes from the original film version, but were mostly cut to let the film move faster. One of the scenes shows Tracy and Mason’s father being more involved with them, and another shows more to Tracy’s relationships with her friends before she meets Evie.

Trailer
• Theatrical Trailer of Thirteen

Overall

Thirteen is a compelling film about the pressures of adolescence that is vividly told by director Catherine Hardwicke and has a great performance by Holly Hunter. The special features on the DVD are nice commodities to the film, especially the insightful commentary. However, the menus on the disc itself have terrible navigation and layout choices. The full-screen version of the film is on side A along with the trailer and the “Making of Thirteen” feature, but you have to flip the disc over to side B to watch the wide-screen version of the film and access the deleted scenes. All of the features and both versions of the film should just be on one side of the disc. The navigation for scene selections or chapters is also not concise. Though the Thirteen is a stellar film, there was a lack of planning put forth into the whole DVD.

The Film: B+
Video Quality: B-
Audio Quality : B-
Extra Features: B+
DVD Navigation/Layout: D

DVD as a whole: B-

Joseph C. Tucker

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