Thirteen
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Movie Reviews of Thirteen
Movie Review: Excellent Movie for Parents
Summary: 5 Stars
You will not be able to leave this movie unaffected. Do not ask me what prompted me to view this movie. I do not have children, and I have not watched a teeny bopper movie in about 20 years. I'm so glad I watched it though. The message to this movie is the unspoken message. First, let's get one fact out of the way: All parents love their children. Also, all parents want to achieve the love of their children. Holly Hunter displays an all too real 21st century parent who does what she can to achieve her child's love to her own fault. In essence, this desire to have her child love her makes her weak. She turns her head when her child comes home with lavish purchases. She ignores the child's abberant behavior with the idea that the girl is a teen, and she fights with the child as one would a sibling. Hunter's character is weakened by a divorce and a past substance abuse problem, so she has given the child ammunition. The child, of course, attacks her mother's weaknesses, and the mother is wounded by these assaults. This societal malady is portrayed with cringing credibility by Hunter. Again, I understand that a parent wants their child to love them, and I can understand that the teen years can overwhelm a parent when faced with the shock and awe attack a teen will use on a parent to assert control. I'm left with the thought, however, that a parent must endure these attacks with strength. Allow the child to call you a hypocrite for your activities versus your teachings, allow them to swarm you with attacks on the weaknesses you display, then remain strong for them. Many parents strive to be buddies with their kids, and they strive to avoid the mistakes that their parents made, but en route to these goals they forget the awesome responsibility of parenthood: to raise a moral and decent adult. Anyone who is a parent of a teen should watch this movie as a harrowing example of what not to do. I am awed by the fact that this movie was written by such a young person, because it is so comprehensive in its detail. It is so comprehensive that it generated a response such as the one I just wrote for you. I will be keeping my eye open for this young person--this Evan Rachael Wood--to see if this was a one-time fluke based upon personal experience, or if she is really this good. I believe it was Ernest Heminway who said, and I'm paraphrasing: "Everyone has one good book (screenplay) in them, the trick is to have two."Movie Review: Stunning movie....
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie paints a realistic window into the scary reality of our kids lives.Evan Rachel Ward plays Tracy, a ordinary thirteen-year-old girl who wants to fit in with the "cool" kids at her middle school. This, of course, involves sex, drugs, body piercing, shoplifting, self-mutilation and all the other methods of traditional teenage rebellion. Tracy comes from a broken home, although her mother, Mel, played by Holly Hunter, seems like a reasonably caring and open-minded individual, even though, in the way she acts and dresses, she seems like little more than a teenager herself. It is this lack of a adult figure in her life that makes Tracy turn to other vices and influences around her.
Hardwicke has provided a raw, up front straight forward picture of teenage values in our modern culture. The film doesn't speak for all teenagers, of course, but it does speak for alot of them, narrowing in on the kinds of dysfunctional lives so many of them are forced to live through on their path to adulthood. first time director hardwicke never plays down the graphic detail the realities of Tracy's life, making us see how the need for peer acceptance, an unstable family life and a permissive, valueless society all contribute to the problems children like Tracy face in coming to terms with who they really are.
Wood provides stunning believable portrait of a young girl in search of her sense of self and her own unique identity unfortunately she tries to find herself through destructive behavior..
Nikki Reed offers superb support as Evie, the wild and wildly popular girl who puts Tracy on the path to gradual self-destruction. Her performance is gripping ,Atonshing is that reed also co wrote the script for Thirteen.
Mel won't be winning any Mother of the Year contests any time soon, but she is a caring person who can't understand what is happening to the daughter she loves. Holly Hunter gives the performance of her career, making the mother neither a hero nor a villain, just a recognizable human being.
Hardwicke has chosen to employ a shakey, handheld camera technique which helps make this film seem like a piece of reality.
"Thirteen" is a gritty and some times distrubing film on an important topic, a topic that alot of teens are screaming to let the world know. Hardwicke and reeds film is the just a film but to alot of teens it is a reality. so parents sit down with your kids and watch this film.
Movie Review: "thirteen.....very real"
Summary: 5 Stars
"Thirteen" is basically the story of a good girl gone bad. Yes, I could summerize it that way, but I won't, as it is more complicated than that. Tracy(Evan-Rachel Wood)is 13, and sweet, a successful student and all around nice person. =. She lives with her struggling single mother Melanie(Holly Hunter, in an oscar-nominated role)and teenage brother Mason(Brady Corbet). Tracy & her mom have a great relationship. But Tracy is obviously insecure, and all it takes is one small comment from the most popular girl in her grade, Evie(Nikki Reed, who co-wrote the script) about Tracie's socks. Tracy changes her wardrobe in an attempt for approval; Evie postively comments her...One thing leads to another and soon Tracy & Evie are inseperable; like sisters. Evie practically inserts herself into Tracy's family and takes Tracy under her wing, in doing this, Tracy gets pulled into a world of (the usual) sex, drugs, and out of control behavior. Melanie has no idea how to handle this; all she can do is stand by and watch her daughter spiral out of control. Evie and Tracy roam wild, with Evie basically living at Tracy's house, there's no dividing them, and this only fuels Tracy's anger towards her exasperated mother. "Thirteen" is a dark and gritty look at an insecure girl's spiral out of control. It offers no answers or resolutions to problems, it doesn't seek to preach; just to show. The film features dynamic performances; the always terrific Hunter is nothing short of amazing; you feel her pain as a mother who has absolutely no idea of what to do to help her daughter. The up-and-comer Wood is sure to attract extra attention for this phenomenal portrayel of the damaged Tracy; she and Hunter are incredibly believable as a mother and daughter. We also see a break-out performance by Nikki Reed as Evie, who is desperate for some kind of motherly love and attention, she hits all the right notes as a very destructive young girl. Also good are supporting actors Jeremy Sisto, as Mel's boyfirend whom Tracy despises; Brady Corbet as Tracy's slightly older surfer brother; and Deborah kara Unger as Evie's unattentive guardian-cousin Brooke. "Thirteen" is the powerful tale of a girl's breakdown into self-destruction. Led by great direction and terrific performances. "Thirteen" is heart breaking, nerve-shattering, shocking, and ,most of all, real. -Alex BaroneMovie Review: "thirteen.....very real"
Summary: 5 Stars
"Thirteen" is basically the story of a good girl gone bad. Yes, I could summerize it that way, but I won't, as it is more complicated than that. Tracy(Evan-Rachel Wood)is 13, and sweet, a successful student and all around nice person. =. She lives with her struggling single mother Melanie(Holly Hunter, in an oscar-nominated role)and teenage brother Mason(Brady Corbet). Tracy & her mom have a great relationship. But Tracy is obviously insecure, and all it takes is one small comment from the most popular girl in her grade, Evie(Nikki Reed, who co-wrote the script) about Tracie's socks. Tracy changes her wardrobe in an attempt for approval; Evie postively comments her...One thing leads to another and soon Tracy & Evie are inseperable; like sisters. Evie practically inserts herself into Tracy's family and takes Tracy under her wing, in doing this, Tracy gets pulled into a world of (the usual) sex, drugs, and out of control behavior. Melanie has no idea how to handle this; all she can do is stand by and watch her daughter spiral out of control. Evie and Tracy roam wild, with Evie basically living at Tracy's house, there's no dividing them, and this only fuels Tracy's anger towards her exasperated mother. "Thirteen" is a dark and gritty look at an insecure girl's spiral out of control. It offers no answers or resolutions to problems, it doesn't seek to preach; just to show. The film features dynamic performances; the always terrific Hunter is nothing short of amazing; you feel her pain as a mother who has absolutely no idea of what to do to help her daughter. The up-and-comer Wood is sure to attract extra attention for this phenomenal portrayel of the damaged Tracy; she and Hunter are incredibly believable as a mother and daughter. We also see a break-out performance by Nikki Reed as Evie, who is desperate for some kind of motherly love and attention, she hits all the right notes as a very destructive young girl. Also good are supporting actors Jeremy Sisto, as Mel's boyfirend whom Tracy despises; Brady Corbet as Tracy's slightly older surfer brother; and Deborah kara Unger as Evie's unattentive guardian-cousin Brooke. "Thirteen" is the powerful tale of a girl's breakdown into self-destruction. Led by great direction and terrific performances. "Thirteen" is heart breaking, nerve-shattering, shocking, and ,most of all, real.Movie Review: "Thriteen" The Dark Depths Of What Is Reality.
Summary: 5 Stars
Though many films try, most do not truthfully depict the active lifestyle of a teen. But this is not so for the cinematic achievement, "Thirteen." Winner of the Sundance Film "Directing Award", this film is truly a cinematic gem. Co-written by 13 year-old Nikki Reed, "Thirteen" delivers the truth and darkness of the real world teens must face now days. When seventh grader Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood) starts the school year, she is faced by the fact that her young-girlish image must be erased to be accepted by the all the boys, and the girls they go after. When Tracy must change her look and personality to match up to the "hottest girl in the school", Evie (Nikki Reed), Tracy is finally accepted into a world she had longed for. But the world she uncovers beneath the "ahead-of-her-time" Evie, drinking, drugs, sex and shoplifting. When Tracy is accepted into the "hot girls" crowd, not only does her whole world change, but also her relationship with her family drastically turns sour. Her single mother, Mel (Academy AwardŽ Winner Holly Hunter), notices this unbelievable streak of not eating enough, going out late and the array of skimpy clothing on Tracy's bedroom floor. The dark truth in this film is blatantly examining every parent's worst nightmare: "Your kids are doing it, too." Even the fact that Tracy's only way to deal with stress is through cutting her arm with a razor blade. The fresh camera work, which is the "hand-held-camera" feel, makes this film even better. But the hardest part of it all is knowing that all this is really happening, due to the feeling of "wanting to fit in" and the whole issue of peer pressure. "A horror movie for every parent of a young girl, the film pulls no punches in its portrayal of newly teenage girls and the trouble they can cause." (www.Thelantern.com) The beginning sequence of the film is also hard-hitting, which shows Tracy and Evie, breathing in Aerosol cans, and beating each other up, shouting "Hit me harder, I can't feel anything!" Then we are greeted with the words, "Six Months Earlier" and see good girl Tracy walking her dog. The blatant downward spiral of Tracy's life is definitely a factor in this movie. "Thirteen" is a movie that's real, raw, and gives no mercy to the viewer. Rated R, this movie is definitely a victory for first time director Catherine Hardwicke.