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Thirteen (2003)

Rate: 8
Viewed: 4/21

Thirteen
4/21: Joining the ranks of Prozac Nation and Crazy/Beautiful, Thirteen features a compelling story about self-destructive female teenagers going through life too fast.

Although it's easy to pin the blame on Evie Zamora, she's not the reason why Tracy fell apart. Prior to befriending each other for the first time, each was a poor white trash girl with irreparable deep-seated problems.

Evie simply became the catalyst that caused Tracy's life to disintegrate past the point of no return. When together, they're quite dangerous, but imagine how productive Evie and Tracy would've been if they led positive lives instead.

To make matters worse, Tracy is a cutter which is evidence of low self-esteem. Anyone who slashes her wrists for fun needs immediate psychiatric help because that's a dumb thing to do. I don't know how Tracy got away with it because her mother and brother should've noticed the scars on her arms considering they see each other on a daily basis.

Rawly mirroring Kids in many ways, the performances are outstanding. Why weren't Evan Rachel Wood and Nikki Reed nominated for Oscars? They were 15 and 14 years old, respectively, at the time. It's an impressive feat. The story was based on Nikki's life when she was at the same age, so she and her surrogate mother, Catherine Hardwicke, partnered up to write the Oscar-worthy screenplay.

Holly Hunter's reactions to what was happening to her character's daughter are appropriate, hence the Oscar nomination, because she's helpless and perhaps not intelligent enough to know how to deal with it. Always meaning well, Melanie wants to be considered a "cool" and "hip" mother. By doing so, she forsakes discipline which is exactly what Tracy needed in the first place. Without it, she can't achieve stability because the foundation within herself hasn't been properly developed.

The most serious mistake is the camera work. It's erratic and has extreme close-ups at times. The director should've trusted the principal leads to let their performances shine.

All in all, Thirteen is like an imminent car crash that makes it hard to look away.