Thirteen Movie Review:


Every once and a while a film comes around that makes your stomach turn, not because of gore or violence, but due to the film’s unfeigned content.
Thirteen is one of those films that is about the pressures of teenage girls growing up in the current generation of thongs, tongue rings, experimentation, among other things. At first, Thirteen comes across as just an overboard shocking film that one will want to forget. After seeing this film, it becomes neglected, but the more it runs in your psyche, the more it’s provocative story becomes realization.

Remember Larry Clark’s Kids (1995), which was a film hailed as a wake up call for parents, that focused on drugs, violence, sex and AIDS with a group of New York City teenagers. Kids did not have hardly any focus at all on the parents of the teenage characters. Thirteen is not as overboard as Kids, and it does show the parent’s side of the central teenage character.

The film opens with the introduction of Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood), a nice thirteen year old that is starting middle school in Los Angeles. Tracy lives
with her mother Melanie (Holly Hunter), who is a divorced "at home" 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 anybody crash for the night at their place. The first day of school, Tracy is stunned when the most popular girl in the school, Evie (Nikki Reed), crosses her path. Evie inhabits tons of makeup, piercings, and flashy clothes that not only turns the guys’ heads, but also makes the girls wish they
looked like her. Tracy soon leaves her normal friends to become best friends with Evie. From stealing, drugs, piercings, shopping, and experimental sexuality, these two teenagers are doing it all right under Melanie’s nose. Tracy becomes very temperamental and is found to be constantly arguing with her mother, especially when Melanie’s ex-drug addict lover (Jeremy Sisto) stops by and stays more than a week. Evie practically moves herself in with the family too, but does have her own guardian named Brooke (Deborah Kara Unger), who is implied as possibly being her cousin. However, as an audience we do not know, as we do not ever know if the constant sob stories that Evie tells Melanie are true or not either. Like previously mention, the story also switches focus onto Melanie, showing the frustrations with her daughter as she has to have the best of everything and practically starves herself to lose weight, when she is already skinny.

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 actually set down to write a screenplay for a teen comedy, but moved towards telling this more compelling piece after Reed starting sharing her own personal stories. The script is full of shocking moments that riddles dismay, and at times sort of becomes repetitive through out the second half of the film. There are aspects in the film, where you not only question the teenagers, but also the mother (Melanie) as to how she does not know these things about her daughter. However, this is one of the central components of the look at young adolescents gone crazy.

Hardwicke does not hold back as the film’s director. Previously working as a production designer for such films as Three Kings and Vanilla Sky (2001),
Hardwicke steps into the director’s chair and slaps you right in the face with this film. The visuals are grainy, with some handheld choices, which work
very well in the argument scenes between Melanie and Tracy. At times, the message seems to be hammered home over and over, but examples will not be divulged due to spoiler information.

Holly Hunter is vulnerable and heartbreaking as the mother trying to figure out what has happen to her child. Hunter’s acting in Thirteen is Oscar-worthy. Young Evan Rachel Wood is also brilliant as Tracy, with her portrayal of the adolescent sucked into the pressures of being a teenager. Nikki Reed is
impressive as well with her portrayal of the instigator Evie. Both of these young women are very convincing in their roles, due to that you finding them both annoying and view them just as monsters for Melanie, when they are only kids (teenagers).

Seeing Thirteen once was enough, though some parents might want to watch it a couple of times. Though some of the content is taken to the extreme and repeats itself, Hardwicke effectively gets her point across. This not a fun or enjoyable film to watch at all, though stricken, this film is very
compelling.

Grade: B+

Joseph C. Tucker

We all remember the life of a teen. A lot of us were lost and misunderstood. All we wanted was some freedom, the cool kids to like us and to talk constantly about absolutely nothing meaningful. Was it really that rosy or is that just hind-sights perspective? The new film “Thirteen” makes a case against that hind-sight perspective.

Evan Rachel Wood (TV’s “Once & Again) plays 13-year old Tracy whose life seems to be flying out of control. Tracy has found her way into the cool kids at school but has also adapted some rather disturbing traits. Tracy has tattoos, piercings, smokes drugs, has sex and routinely commits petty crimes. Tracy’s mother Melanie (Holly Hunter) is at her wits end and is frustrated on how to save her struggling daughter. What has happened to this family? How did Tracy become such a monster?

Thirteen’s “crack-cocaine-infused” realism makes an “After School Special” look like aspirin. That realism is majorly uncomfortable, shocking and will probably blow your mind. Is this really the way all teens are? For god’s sake I hope not.

The powerful, Oscar-worthy performance from new-comer Evan Rachel Wood is awe-inspiring. At just the young age of 16, Wood delivers a performance that would make a lot of actresses two or three times her age jealous. There is so much raw realism that the audience is forced to see how this girl is coming apart at the seams. Wood is blindingly amazing.

In contrast to Wood’s explosive, Tracy, Holly Hunter delivers another strong and poignant performance as her mother. Hunter has never seemed so natural than she is in this role. In a lot of the performances I have seen from Hunter, I have always been able to draw a line between where her character ends and the actress begins. In this film I couldn’t. This probably could be Hunter’s best work to date.

Many people have dubbed today's teens as the "lost generation": a generation without a path, purpose, or passion. The depiction from both Wood and co-star Nikki Reed in this film could solidify that theory. But probably for the first time on screen we can see why these kids are in fact “lost”. Co-star Reed, who also co-wrote the film with director Catherine Hardwicke, definitely tries to bring that dynamic into the core of the film.

I hope that some learn that this film is a wake-up call to the struggle of today’s youth. It is amazing that a huge part of that revelation came from the voice someone who had been there. This screenplay needs an Oscar nod.

“Thirteen” in all its realism and breathlessness will be hard to forget if we ever do. This is easily one of the best films of the year.

4.5 out of 5

Dean Kish

So Says the Soothsayer

With a strong script co-written by then-13 costar Reed, this film takes a frighteningly realistic look at young girls who behave like out-of-control women. Tracy (Wood) is trying to fit in with the cool crowd, most notably the rebellious Evie (Reed), who her big brother (Corbet) informs her is the sexiest girl in school. It doesn't take long before Tracy and Evie are inseparable, illicitly piercing their tongues and indulging in all sorts of dodgy activity--shoplifting, drug use, sexual experimentation. While Evie's mother (Unger) is too preoccupied to care, Tracy's mom Mel (Hunter) is deeply concerned about her daughter, even though she thinks it's merely teen rebellion against an absent father (Moffet) and her young new boyfriend (Sisto).

While Hardwicke shows solid skills as a director, she can't resist rather overused (but effective) first-time filmmaker tricks like rapid-fire editing to show the teens' instant appraisal of each other, and colour-bleaching to hint at the draining emotions. These things are slightly obvious, but they're balanced by a crackling script and astonishingly authentic performances from Wood and Reed as teens who are trying far too hard to grow up. But Hunter is the real soul of the film--her fantastic performance captures small details in Mel that echo Tracy's journey ... but from another time and place. By the end we are right there with her in the overwhelming emotion of the final scenes. Throughout the film, the character interaction is so raw and exposed that it takes our breath away; the scene in which the girls aggressively seduce their neighbour (Pardue) is terrifying! This is one of the most potent looks at early-teens, and bravely tells it like it is, earning rightfully restrictive ratings that'll keep 13-years-old out of the cinemas! But then, most 13-year-olds will have no trouble sneaking in to see it if they want to. Whether it will speak to them as strongly as it connects with worried parents is another question.

Rich Cline

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