Thirteen (2003)
It's happening so fast.
Starring: Holly Hunter, Evan Rachel Wood, Nikki Reed, Jeremy Sisto, Brady Corbet, Deborah Kara Unger, Kip Pardue, Sarah Clarke, D.W. Moffett, Vanessa Anne Hudgens, Ulysses Estrada, Sarah Cartwright, Jenicka Carey, Jasmine Salim, Tessa Ludwick
Director: Catherine Hardwicke
Running Time: 100 minutes
US MPAA rating: N/AUK BBFC rating: 18
Drama
When Holly Hunter and Deborah Kara Unger last shared the screen in David Cronenberg's controversial 'Crash', they played damaged people seeking self-destructive thrills. Now, together again in 'Thirteen', they play relatively normal individuals, and it is the young women under their guardianship who are instead living on the edge.
In its opening scene, Tracy looks straight to camera and demands 'Hit me!', before she and her equally drug-addled schoolfriend Evie laugh and exchange bloody facial punches. Cut to four months earlier, and 'Thirteen' offers a blow by blow account of Tracy's rapid decline from family girl and diligent pupil to a body-pierced, sexually active, drug-using (and -dealing), out-of-control teenage rebel, as the indulgence of her loving mother Mel turns to helplessness and horror.
The film begins like 'Poison Ivy', with an impressionable teenager falling in with a bad influence, but what ultimately makes 'Thirteen' a far better film is a refusal to offer pat explanations of what happens or to allow its issues to be resolved superficially by some misplaced thriller dénouement. Tracy is at that age of confusion where her growing sense of independence, and indeed her own body, become a field of constant battle, but 'Thirteen' suggests that she bears much deeper scars which are merely exacerbated, rather than caused, by adolescence. Similarly while her manipulative friend Evie seems to have the rôle of 'bad girl', her desperation to become part of a loving family and the mysterious burn scar on her back hint at problems, like Tracy's own, which are closer to home.
As Tracy, Evan Rachel Wood negotiates a difficult path between little girl and hormonal teenager, finding a perfect mix of naïveté and precociousness, while Nikki Reed (who also co-wrote the screenplay, aged sixteen, with director Catherine Hardwicke) brings a subtle vulnerability to the tough-seeming Evie, making her more than just the Old Testament temptress that her name suggests. The always excellent Holly Hunter plays Tracy's mother Mel not as some clueless middle-aged casualty of the generation gap, but as a trendy, down-to-earth young woman ('the hot big sister', as Evie puts it) against whom any teenage rebellion would have to take an extreme form. Evie's legal guardian Brooke is portrayed by Deborah Kara Unger as too self-involved to see the damage which her self-involvement causes, while Mel's boyfriend Brady (the superb Jeremy Sisto) is an ex-crackhead rejected by Tracy even though he is far more dependable and caring than her own absent father (D.W. Moffett).
'Thirteen' is a surprisingly unsensationalised, brutally frank coming-of-age drama, examining the way in which a troubled adolescence both affects, and is affected by, the home environment. Full of difficult questions, and with no esay answers, it is that rare thing, a teen flick which will make you think.
It's Got: Eye make-up, thongs and lots of piercings.
It Needs: Actresses who are just a little closer to thirteen years of age (but this is a quibble)
Alternatives: Poison Ivy, Kids, Perfume de Violetas
Summary: A surprisingly unsensationalised, brutally frank coming-of-age drama.
Review Date: 1st February 2004
External Links
Official Web Site
Thirteen at the IMDB
Comments18 Comments |
| 8) :?: :lol: 8) :-: :+: :o( ;) :) :( Does anyone know what this movie is about i've never even herd of it! |
| Comment by:- Erica | www.diaries.suchisthis.com/hot... | 06 May 2004 | ip: logged |
| This Movie is excellent!! It is one of my favourites. It is done so well and the acting is great. It has a great message and i fully recomend for people to see. I think Anton Bitel has made an awful reveiw and hasnt look at the message or the big picture! Watch the movie and you will be moved! |
| Comment by:- Amy | | 30 July 2004 | ip: logged |
| This is one of the best movies that I eva seen. It is one of my faves. I highly reccomend this movie to most teens. |
| Comment by:- Rebekah | | 07 August 2004 | ip: logged |
| ITS MY FAVOURITE MOVIE EVER. KEEP THEM COMING, YOU SHOULD MAKE ANOTHER SILUALAR MOVIE CALLED, ... - - - " Thirteen 2 " |
| Comment by:- hottie | | 12 August 2004 | ip: logged |
| i love this movie its so good! omg i love it its me and 2 of my uther frends FAVE! dont make a second! it will sooooo reck the movie! but i really recomend for u guys to see it |
| Comment by:- me!*!*!*!*!* | | 05 September 2004 | ip: logged |
| hey, im not old enough to watch this :( awww |
| Comment by:- kimi --> chek out ma webbie www.freewebs.com/ikklexkimi | www.freewebs.com/ikklexkimi... | 10 September 2004 | ip: logged |
| I absoulutly love this movie, it is my most favorite movie yet! It's very "real life", whcih makes it sooo good. It reminds me so much of my past. Whether thats good or not, either way I love this movie!!!!! |
| Comment by:- Kate | | 19 September 2004 | ip: logged |
| wow it best movie ive seen in a long time im not like the girls in the movie much even though i am 13 but i know a lotta people who are like that and it made me cry and i havent cried during a movie since i was like 8 and that was titanic :-P |
| Comment by:- :) | www.xanga.com/urheartshapedbox... | 27 September 2004 | ip: logged |
| omg this is one of the best films i've every seen!!! it made me cry SO much!! it's so moving and it's really easy to relate to, it reminds me of my life and other people i've grown up with ALOT i really recommend everyone sees this film!! |
| Comment by:- fcukd_up_princess | www.hotmail.com | 05 October 2004 | ip: logged |
| wow, i hired this film last nite and it was so down to earth, i very nearly got like that wen i started hangin round it sum 1 like evie wen i was 14.. very scary. |
| Comment by:- moi | | 10 October 2004 | ip: logged |
| that movie is amazing...it happens to so many ppl n is tru to life...parents n kids SHOULD watch this i now so mani ppl this has happened to |
| Comment by:- Anonymous | | 12 October 2004 | ip: logged |
| i absolutly loved this movie, i recomend that everyones sees this movie, i was moved the whole way through. |
| Comment by:- anonymous | | 22 October 2004 | ip: logged |
| OMG THIS IS THE BEST MOVIE I HAVE EVER FREAKIN SEEN ALL 13 YR OLDS SHULD C IT ITS THE BEST!!!!! |
| Comment by:- WATCH 13 | asta_johnston13 | 07 November 2004 | ip: logged |
| its the best movie ever u should make a tv show of it and just like have the life of the girl on it but keep evan rachel wood on it shes the best id love to be on the movie like be the new best friend of tracys and tracy leads me in to trouble that would be so cool just to be in the show or movie thanks to if u want to realy do my idea email me at y2dreamgirl91@yahoo.com |
| Comment by:- Serena Hawes | dont have one | 11 November 2004 | ip: logged |
| I loved it!! it is really moving and real. i had to buy it,ive watched it over and over. i didnt like ending though that is what will mostly move you it was mostly moved me. I REALLY think you should make a secound one WITH THE SAME TWO GIRLS, about like what happend with Evie and Tracy. It would make sence to make another one, because its like "well that was stupid! what happend to Tracy. is she still like? did she get her old friends back? or did she make a clique of her own stay the same way?" There are many questions to the ending. So yeah I REALLY think you should make another one...BUT, I STILL LOVED IT, bcuzz i love seeing grils do makeup and things like that, and things i saw the girls doing, bcuz that is what i enjoy doing. I really suggest that you make another movie like that but different, but still with 13 year old girls doing make up and popular girls and other girls wanting to fit in. MAKE ANOTHER ONE!!!Because that movie was GREAT. MY FAV. MOVIE YET! |
| Comment by:- Sabrina | none | 12 November 2004 | ip: logged |
| omg that is my fave movie ever! I have seen it so many times, i know all the words! I dont think ill EVER see a movie so great. It is kinda like my life because im 13 and like evie and tracy, go to school in a gheto Las Angeles school. My friends all say im like evie because i look about just like her and i kinda act like her too with the drugs and sex and everything. I also dont have parents and a Teal is my guardiain. If there is a thirteen 2 i so want to act in it! |
| Comment by:- Isabell | | 25 November 2004 | ip: logged |
| hey ppl u shuld all c this movie it KICKED ASS nad if u never seen it b4 you suk cuz it wuld rok ur world!!!!:D |
| Comment by:- thirteen alike | www.freewebs.com/asta_johnston... | 26 November 2004 | ip: logged |
| I can relate to this movie alot I am thirteen and I went over my friends house and we snuck to watch this movie (go figure) anyways I could relate to it alot I mean all the presures of drugs and smoking is right there for us to grab. Plus if you see this really popular girl at school and you see her having all this fun your probibly gonna wanna go out there and try it too!! Personaly I dont think Tracy knew what she was getting herself into what do you think?:p P.S. feel free to e-mail me back if you want |
| Comment by:- Rachel | www.msn.com | 03 January 2005 | ip: logged |
