Thirteen
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Movie Reviews of Thirteen
Movie Review: a scary look at reality for some teenagers
Summary: 5 Stars
A film by Catherine Hardwicke"Thirteen" tells the story of Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood), a thirteen year old girl who, up until this point, has been a good girl. She loves her mother, Melanie (Holly Hunter), and listens to her. She is not a very popular girl in school, though she does have her own friends. We see her longing for a great social acceptance than what she has. When Melanie's former addict ex-boyfriend comes back into the picture despite Melanie's previous promise that he will never be back, Tracy is hurt, upset, and angry. From this she begins to take her first steps of rebellion. Evie (Nikki Reed) is one of the most popular girls in school, as well as the hottest (as described by Tracy's brother). It is obvious from the start that Tracy would like to be friends with Evie and perhaps have Evie's life.
The movie doesn't actually start here. The movie starts with Tracy and Evie (both of them then unnamed) sitting on a bed, huffing from an aerosol can, and hitting each other in the face and laughing because they can't feel their faces. The movie then moves to four months earlier when we see the more innocent Tracy, the pre-Evie Tracy. Tracy tries to get the chance to hang out with Evie, but gets brushed to the side with every opportunity. When she sees Evie shoplifting Tracy is first shocked but then very quickly sees an opportunity. Tracy steals an older woman's wallet without getting caught and runs up to Evie, tells her what she did, and shares the money. Evie and Tracy go on a little shopping spree and just like that they are inseparable.
Tracy is still fairly innocent, but the more time she spends with Evie the more she experiences: drugs, sex, alcohol, stealing, skipping classes, disobeying her mother, cursing at her mother. We watch as Tracy's life begins to spiral out of control and Melanie sees what is happening, though she does not really understand why, and she is powerless to stop it. Melanie is a recovering alcoholic herself, but she is doing the best she can as a single mother. She is all heart, and other than her relationship with the ex-boyfriend I'm not sure she really does anything wrong to drive Tracy away.
That is perhaps the one flaw in this movie. I had a difficult time figuring out Tracy's motivation for rebelling. I understood the desire for social acceptance, but not the driving need for it, and the film never explained that. Despite that lack of explanation on Tracy's motivation, this movie is filled with realistic, powerful performances. I believed the characters were who they were supposed to be rather than just actors playing a role. Evan Rachel Wood and Nikki Reed had absolutely standout roles and they both did a fine job. Younger actors always seem to be the most difficult to cast because they often sound wooden when speaking their lines, but not Evan or Nikki, they were spot on. Nikki Reed should be highlighted as well because at age 13 she co-wrote this movie with the director and is now only 16 years old. What a debut (both in acting as well as screenwriting)!
"Thirteen" is a movie that, if I was a parent, would scare me. It tells me that even if I don't do anything really wrong or bad, if I'm not careful my daughter can still fall into the wrong crowd and go down a very harmful path. What is perhaps most frightening is that it is obvious from the movie that even before Tracy met Evie and started drinking and doing drugs that Tracy already had problems. Tracy is a cutter. When she is feeling low she locks herself in the bathroom and cuts into her forearms and just hides it with a long sleeve shirt. I thought "Thirteen" was a rather good movie even though it doesn't provide any answers nor does it provide a motivation for Tracy. It just says this is one possible reality for teenagers today. And that is a scary thought.
Movie Review: Realistic Look On Today's Youth
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't care what anybody says especially about this movie being unrealistic. Well I can tell you from personal experience, it's VERY realistic. From the sex to the drugs, it's all out there. I am a gay teen & even though I can't relate to these girls' story, I can tell you that my best friend in the entire world has gone through much of what these girls do in this film...from pot to cocaine to sex with boys AND men. It happens more today than anybody is willing to recognize. Speaking from MY personal experiences, I know that every teen at one point or another feels like losing control & just letting go. I know alot of people at my high school that have slit their wrists and overdosed on alchohol. As far as no teen going through ALL of what the characters in Thirteen do, if you believe that, you are blind and in serious denial. Some teens may really have a pretty healthy family life & might be comfortable with who they are, but most of them don't. Because adolescense is when you find yourself and instead of finding themselves, alot of teens lose themselves first.As far as the performances, I was amazed. Evan Rachel Wood is just BRILLIANT as Tracy, especially in one of the ending scenes when things have just gone so far & her mom has come to realise what's going on. Her mom is played by Academy Award Winning Actress Holly Hunter who is superb in her part. Nikki Reed stars as Evie (and also co-wrote the film), a young girl with a harder life than it would seem to be. I loved how Evie so desperately wanted Tracy's mom to adopt her. Evie had told Tracy's mother that her mom had died and that her caretaker was her aunt. But really, her aunt WAS her mom...she just didn't want to live with her, because of all the abuse she was being put through. In the end when Evie is sent back to her mother, she turns on Tracy & exposes what they have been doing, blaming it all on Tracy.
The story is just so moving & really gives the viewer a look into what really goes on with teens today. All the time, it just seems to start at a younger and younger age. I know that this really happens, because it has happened to me and people all around me. This shouldn't be that surprising to people or parents and should really open their eyes and give them a look into the world that alot of troubled teens are diving into. I also loved how the media presence could be felt and seen throughout the entire film, especially those glamourized eyes. If you look closely, the picture that we see on the sign throughout the movie gets dirtier and more vandilized as Tracy loses herself more and more.
With that said, I think this movie is THE most realistic portrayal of teen life that I've ever seen. The DVD is brilliant also. The menu is set up beautifully & the special features are great also. There's audio commentary featuring the cast and the director/co-writer, the theatrical trailer, and the featurette "The Making Of Thirteen" which has great interviews with the cast of the film. This is a must see for everyone. Rent it at least, it's a treasure not to be missed. And there's no happy ending, giving everyone an easy solution. Just a simple scream, because as much as Tracy and every other teen in the world would appreciate a happy ending, there's still many years ahead & alot of obstacles to overcome.
Movie Review: Passionate, Committed Film about What Matters Most: Our Kids
Summary: 5 Stars
The toughest and truest coming of age movie in years, THIRTEEN is not for the faint of heart--and not for children without a healthy dose of parental accompaniment. It's about what happens when the normal post-pubescent urge to individuate from family and find peer-group acceptance conspires with a severely decadent society to make adolescence a nightmare. Watching the downward spiral of the desperate-to-be-"all that" 13-year-old Tracy is as gut-wrenching as watching a car spin out in traffic yet being powerless to prevent the accident, partly because we've all known a "Tracy" or two, but mostly because of the passionate intensity that everyone involved has brought to this film. There's no sugar-coating to this story, no Disneyfication, no crippling compromise for the sake of broad box-office appeal, just utterly committed storytelling as authentic and chilling as BOYZ N THE HOOD and MI VIDA LOCA.Writer-director Catherine Hardwicke, co-writer Nikki Reed, cinematographer Elliot Davis, and the entire cast have crafted a movie that adroitly navigates a minefield of clichés by focusing on telling details, thus particularizing Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood), her girlfriend Evie (played by co-writer Reed), her mother (Holly Hunter), and their interlocking relationships as well. Hunter received a well-deserved Oscar nomination for her searingly authentic performance as Tracy's recovering alcoholic single mom, Mel, who enables Tracy's self-destructive slide by ignoring the warning signs that something is dreadfully wrong and neglecting the active parental intervention that the situation demands. Co-author Reed is utterly convincing as the slyly manipulative Evie, who preys on Tracy's need to be regarded as cool, and on Mel's need to see herself as helpful and understanding. Yet as good as Hunter and Reed are, this is Wood's movie, and she all but steals the show with the gutsiest, most accomplished performance by a young teen actress that I can recall. (I suspect that only the MPAA's squeamishness about the subject matter kept Wood from an Oscar nomination of her own.) All the supporting actors give remarkably fine performances, too, especially Brady Corbett as Tracy's older brother, Mason, and Deborah Kara Unger as Evie's out-of-it guardian, Brooke.
I admired this movie far more than expected. It's not easy to watch, but that has nothing to do with D.P. Davis's judiciously artful use of the hand-held camera. Rather it's because the story rings so painfully true, and because--like Tracy's mom--our society often neglects what's best for our kids for fear of offending them or those who prey upon them. How many Evies and Tracys must suffer before we come to our senses and stop encouraging the conditions that enable such sorrows to flourish? In short, THIRTEEN is a gutsy and very accomplished film about something that really matters--our kids, and the need not to shirk our responsibility for their welfare, especially in the treacherously amoral world we are bequeathing them. I'd give it 4 1/2 stars if permitted, but given the choice Amazon allows, let's make it an even 5.
Movie Review: "Hit me. I'm serious; I can't feel anything, hit me! Again"
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm a parent of a young daughter and this has hit me pretty hard because it is associated in today's world. I understand this isn't exactly a true story but I do think that is could easily be based on a true story because I'm almost sure that something very close to this has happened at one point or another. The acting in this movie was some of the best I've seen from this cast. Although it isn't what happens to everyone it is what happens to an unfortunate fraction.
There were a few points that just absolutely blew me away with the way they symbolized so much in one shot. I'm not taking any chances but I feel as though I need to place this anyway:
First: The shot where Evie and Tracy are in the park, Tracy gets high for the first time and they're all laying on the ground. The camera relentlessly spins in circles, is this not symbolic to her life just beginning to spin out of control. Second: During her "No Bra, No Panties..." attack Tracy steps into the shadows. When she stops her advance on her mother there is only a small patch of light on her face, the rest shrouded in shadows. There's still a small bit of light fighting against the darkness in her head, in her mind.
Finally: When Tracy rambles into the bathroom after her teacher sends her to the counselor she meets one of her friends. I don't know if her name was ever mentioned. That's beside the point: Tracy then applies a ridiculous amount of make-up to cover up her scars and her cuts. By this time she has begun to look as pale as the background of the page I'm typing this on. By this time the real Tracy is starting to break-through, screaming to be let out again. The make-up is just more layers for the real Tracy to fight through to get out. And the new Tracy is doing all she can to keep it down, but she can't. Director Catherine Hardwick made this movie work.
Anyways, after watching this there are some of the best performances, scenes and shots I've seen. I'm not a professional movie writer, I don't get invited to movie festivals in Montreal or New York and I don't get invited to mid-night showings with the actors present; but I do know what it was like to be a teenager and having seen stuff similar to this with my own 2 eyes. It's hard to believe that Nikki Reed had no experience before this film. She absolutely nailed the manipulative attitude of Evie, while also making the viewer like her. Holly Hunter's absolutely blew me away and I can't think of a better performance than Hunter's. You could actually see the terror and panic in her face as she watched her daughter slowly slip deeper and deeper into trouble. "Thirteen" packs a whole lot into an hour and a half, and, for that matter, into one girl. It's a movie, after all, but like I said it's very accurate and seems to stretch the fact that it's only a movie. Highly recommended.
Movie Review: Thirteen as told by a thirteen year old
Summary: 5 Stars
While reading other customer reviews, I was stunned by the tendency of cynical college types to dismiss this movie as "eager to be hip" and "exploitive garbage". If one has not been through an experience, rejecting it when it is displayed must be easy. However, for those of us like myself, who are thirteen years old, this movie was shockingly real. And who better to be the judge of that than a thirteen year old, rather than a pretentious college student, now too cool to believe in teen "angst" as they call it.Tracy's (the remarkable Evan Rachel Wood) descent into the world of drugs, casual sex, and smiling lies is a descent I have seen far too often in real life. Some reviewers were suspicious of the quickness of her progression into this world. However, one must remember that these are middle schoolers, not twenty-somethings, and the overwhelming insecurity of most 13 year olds allows them to change their images daily. Also, Tracy is not necessarily a "good girl" when the movie begins. She already smokes, and seems to feel stuck in her life both at school and at home. This is evident in scenes she shares with her friends, and a particular scene with her mother (Holly Hunter in an incredible performance), where despite her best efforts, Tracy cannot get the attention she needs from her mother, who is wrapped up in most aspects of her own life, especially romantically.
Thirteen is not for those who wish to shut their eyes to what is truly happening to our culture and society. However, I would recommend that every parent see Thirteen with their child to know the reality of the environment their child is growing up around. If you are a parent, do not believe for a moment that the experiences of Tracy are experiences that take place everywhere else. Whether you know it or not, this movie does indeed hit close to home.
A few more notes before I end this review. Evan Rachel Wood deserves an Oscar for her harrowing performance as Tracy, Holly Hunter is better than I have ever seen her, and Nikki Reed is inspiringly truthful in both her writing and her performance as a character she had not intended to play. Catherine Hardwicke, as the director, uses her own emotions and vibrant colors to convey the truths hidden behind the masks each character wears. The obsessive need of the two girls for each other, as a replacement for lack of love in other aspects of their lives, is perhaps the most honest part of this movie.
Whether you enjoy it or not, Thirteen is a movie that must be seen. More than a social commentary, Thirteen is almost a mirror of reality.