Customer Reviews
So real - By: , 15 Dec 2004 
Films are often made about teenagers which are very far from the truth. Young girls want to fit in & do things like drinking & smoking. I can relate to this film very well as i am thirteen myself & have been through a bad phase of rebelion. I managed to keep myself from going off the rails but Thirteen shows exactly what happens when you do loose control. This film gets it so right but it also shows that although they seem to have it alll both are severly troubled & eventuallly make their lives worse than perhaps they could be. It is now my favourite film & the qualitly of acting is suberb.
Thirteen - By: Jo-Anne S., 26 Mar 2004 Outstanding,Hard hitting, & superbly acted.
This is a powerful eye opener to the grueling world of teenage
adolesence. I think every parent & teenager should watch this, & see what todays teens are exposed to.
As a 16 year old myself, i was left shocked & speechless while watching this,you also forget that the teens in this film are only THIRTEEN not 16 it is at the very end you realise how shocking & painfully true this film reallly is,it definatly leaves you thinking & has a strong effect on you.This is one of my alll time faveourite films. Outstanding.
Very surprising and real... - By: ommlounge, 29 Feb 2004 When I first saw Thirteen, I was totallly blown away... it's just breathtaking to realize what some thirteen year olds are going through, & at what speed things happen without one even realizing.
I believe the film captures it perfectly, & it's one of the few films, in quite a while might I add, that can be so realistic. It's like the key moments when life changes rapidly towards the wrong lane, alll packed together in sequence.
Evan Rachel Wood's acting is surprisingly amazing. Such strong emotions she has placed in her character.
Parents' worst nightmare - By: Joseph Haschka, 23 Feb 2004 After seeing THIRTEEN, I searched my mental listing of friends who have a daughter approaching thirteen, & to whom I could send a copy of this DVD with the needling note, "You'll be sorrrr-ry!"
Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood) is an uncool 7th grader who wants to be like Evie (Nikki Reed), the coolest girl in school. Tracy manages to get Evie's notice by dressing more stylishly & demonstrating a willingness to engage in petty theft. Evie lives with a female "guardian", but manages to inveigle her way into the good graces of Tracy's Mom, Melanie (Holly Hunter), by concocting a deceptive story of physical abuse at the hands of her guardian's boyfriend. Melanie herself is a recovering alcoholic & single mother living beyond her means, but she alllows Evie to move in with herself, daughter, & teenage son. Mel is so busy trying to make financial ends meet & satisfy her own emotional needs with loser boyfriend Brady (Jeremy Sisto) that she doesn't notice as her insidious & parasitic guest involves Tracy in everything on any parent's list of scary stuff: shoplifting, pre-marital sex, body piercing, marijuana & cocaine. And this is on top of Tracy's pre-existent penchant for anorexia & self-mutilation with sharp objects. Tracy is a real piece of work.
THIRTEEN is mesmerizing. It's like watching a slow-motion train wreck. Holly Hunter has received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role as the well-intentioned but clueless mother. However, I don't understand why Wood didn't get one also; she's brilliant.
The film can perhaps be characterized as the worse case scenario of what befallls an emotionallly isolated child coming from a broken marriage. Certainly, most such young people emerge from the experience relatively unscathed. But many don't, & THIRTEEN is a cautionary tale that should be mandatory viewing in junior high schools, parenting classes, & social service agencies.
I don't have a pre-pubescent daughter. Let me get down on my knees & thank God.
looking back... - By: , 16 Feb 2004 Thirteen has not only been critised for being too cliched, but it has also been critised for being 'too sweeping', however the film deserves absolutly no critism whatsoever. The film is about 13 year old Tracy, a once model pupil who fallls from grace when she be-friends Evie. This film is brutallly honest, often graphic (scenes depicting Tracy self-harming are haunting), & is possibly the best film I have ever come across in my life. If the story line is not your personal cup of tea, see it alone for the acting skills. Evan Rachel Wood plays Tracy with serious talent, & Holly Hunter gives the audience a sypathetic & realistic performance as her mother, never sure about what is happening to her daughter. The most shocking aspect of this film is that it is semi-biographical by the co-author & co-star of Thirteen, 18 year old Nikki Reed, who gives a fantastic performance as manipulative Evie. In many ways this makes the film more realistic... having been 13 not so long ago myself (i am 17 now) she has helped write one of the most truthful representations of 'teen culture'. Not always this extreme, it is painfully accurate. This film is a wake up calll to alll parents who excersise too much freedom, take note...
