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Well, well, well...a teen movie that isn't
trying to sell a soundtrack. A film about adolescents that actually
tackles the real issues they face with unflinching eyes. The last time
that happened, the movie was called KIDS, was rated NC-17 by the
geniuses at the MPAA so that no teen could see it and saw its message
about safe sex go unheard. With an R rating for some of its intense
situations, Thirteen and its engrained warnings about what can happen if
you don't parent your child effectively at that age, is something that
the Freddy Prince Jr. movies of the 90's and even the studio censored crazy/beautiful,
never touched on. I won't ruin the film's beginning. It may be too
realistic and disturbing for some to stomach but its impact drives home
the fact that this is no after school special.
Evan Rachel Wood, of ABC's canceled television drama, Once and Again,
carries this movie on her back from the first scene until the credits
roll and the lights go up. Wood's Tracy is the focal point of this movie
and is extremely reminiscent of Claire Danes's Angela Chase from the
similarly canceled ABC drama, My So-Called Life. Both girls deal with
adolescent angst and both feature a bad influence. In Thirteen, it's the
co-writer of the screenplay, Nikki Reed, who portrays that influence (Evie
Zamora) so perfectly. The film's first time director and screenplay
co-writer, Catherine Hardwicke, shows the viewer a clear view of a teen
girl who's enduring a troubled home life. Karen Moncrieff effectively
did the same thing earlier this year with her directing efforts in Blue
Car.
Unlike Blue Car, which is a poignant film, moving one moment and twisted
the next, Thirteen is a descent into darkness and despair in the vein of
Requiem for a Dream. The film moves Tracy quickly from the safe confines
of writing poetry to the risqué arena of wearing thongs above jeans and
drug experimentation. Throughout the movie, Evie grows more and more
dependent on Tracy. As Tracy's relationship with her mother (played by
Holly Hunter), a mother barely holding her life together, begins falling
apart, Evie becomes a surrogate part of the family and begins calling
Hunter's Melanie, Mom. When Evie's biggest fantasy about Melanie and
Tracy is destroyed, Evie takes her revenge as methodically as only a
classic teen bad girl can.
This is not an easy movie to view. It has many difficult scenes, one of
note being the "Jail Bait, Rape Scene". I know what you're
thinking and it's not that at all. Its something else along the lines of
Disclosure. Thirteen is not a movie for everybody, it's a little too
aggressive in tone for teens to sit through without a parent next to him
or her but it's acted superbly by actual teens and not twenty year olds.
Teenagers of Tracy and Evie's age will be more receptive to the
underlying messages in Thirteen because of that fact. The reality of
this film is that if you're a teen, you already know that people like
Evie Zamora and Tracy exist. You see them walking down the halls of your
school everyday but now, after seeing Thirteen, you're more aware of
them, what they represent to you and your life as you know it.
  
- 8.5/10
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Reginald Williams
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