Thirteen (2002)

82% of critics liked it
(147 reviews)
76% of users liked it
(194,709 ratings)

Prolific production designer and art director Catherine Hardwicke makes her directorial debut with the coming-of-age drama Thirteen. Los Angeles teenager and overachiever Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood) is an excellent student in her seventh grade class and gets along well with her mother, Melanie (Holly… More Prolific production designer and art director Catherine Hardwicke makes her directorial debut with the coming-of-age drama Thirteen. Los Angeles teenager and overachiever Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood) is an excellent student in her seventh grade class and gets along well with her mother, Melanie (Holly Hunter). She fears that she's not cool enough to be friends with Evie (Nikki Reed), the most popular girl in school. Fueled with genuine adolescent energy, Tracy follows Evie's lead into the harsh realities of sex, drugs, and hard-edged adventure. Consumed with temptations and conflicting desires, Tracy loses her good-girl identity, greatly affecting her relationship with her mom. Partly autobiographical, Thirteen was co-written by Hardwicke and actual 13-year-old Reed, who are close family friends. Originally intending to write a teen comedy, they ended up creating a hard-hitting drama exposing the contemporary teenage experience. Thirteen was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, with Catherine Hardwicke taking home the Director's Award. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 40 min.
Directed By: Catherine Hardwicke
Written By: Catherine Hardwicke, Nikki Reed
Genres: Drama

In Theaters: Aug 20, 2003 Wide
On DVD: Jan 27, 2004
Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures

Critic Reviews

Megan Lehmann, New York Post
Hunter and Reed are excellent, but it's the scarily talented 15-year-old Wood whose scorching, star-making performance drives Thirteen.
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel
It's a Kids for a new generation of the too-young -to-be-this -messed up.
Bill Muller, Arizona Republic
Although it borders on exploitation in several places, Thirteen packs an emotional wallop.
Andrew Sarris, New York Observer
It's a pretentious piece of Valley Girl vileness masquerading as social commentary.
Joe Baltake, Sacramento Bee
You don't necessarily have to be a parent to get the shivers from Hardwicke's detailed delineation of one young girl's shocking descent from perfect daughter/honor student to incorrigible rebel/disruptive influence.
Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle
Thirteen, a disturbing look at rebellious teens, is galvanized by emotional extremes and wrenching performances. But this gritty indie film also presumes a profundity that its edgy shocks and drama-queen histrionics don't deliver.
Nell Minow, Common Sense Media
Explicit peer pressure story for older teens.
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
A horror tale about a subculture in which impressionable girls drift under group pressure into drugs, piercing, self-mutilation, anorexia and shoplifting
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness
A rather basic tale about the perils of going along with the in-crowd and the extremes to which teenagers will act out for attention.
Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
a sober-sided Freaky Friday -- a chance to look through the eyes of a child
Martin Scribbs, Low IQ Canadian
What power does a teenage girl have?
Enrique Buchichio, Uruguay Total
Al menos una película se las arregla para decir que el "american way of life" (...) esconde terribles tragedias domésticas.

Read all 12 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Bethany M

Weird and crazy but at the same time it's exactly what happens at 13 when you're slowly starting to turn into a young woman. I remember watching this at 13 and it really got me thinking.
Eliza N

Well let's admit it ,they should had named it sixteen or seventeen OR the actresses had to look younger ,otherwise they underestimate our perception .In the other hand I don't know why but by my point of view it had to be some kind of cruel but it wasn't at all .Also… More
Well let's admit it ,they should had named it sixteen or seventeen OR the actresses had to look younger ,otherwise they underestimate our perception .In the other hand I don't know why but by my point of view it had to be some kind of cruel but it wasn't at all .Also I don't like watching trailers,that's a personal choise(the reason why is what already happened in the past specifically with this flickr at the present ),I realized I had watched the whole movie and there was nothing left not seen at the ACTUAL movie .Finally I have to admit that Evan Rachel Wood was really good at her part even though she didn't look as thirteen year old and Catherine Hardwicke shows us that color blue it's her favourite (it's the second time I watched a movie directed by her ,first time was Twillight and she used it there too!)
Lady D

A Teen movie with a difference, peer pressure and the desire to be popular is demonstrated to great effect in this story and is a tale aimed at all, not just teens or parents, even more interesting was the ability to relate to the teen characters dispite the age gap I hold. This… More
A Teen movie with a difference, peer pressure and the desire to be popular is demonstrated to great effect in this story and is a tale aimed at all, not just teens or parents, even more interesting was the ability to relate to the teen characters dispite the age gap I hold. This was quite naturally acted and the escalation of events were told well, holding up a mirror to teens of any era.
Josh L

A gut wrenching and emotionally alive film with superb acting. Evan Rachel Wood and Nikki Reed completely inhabit these roles and make me believe they are actually these drug infused sex machines who go off the deep end at age 13. Of course I now know that Evan Rachel Wood is a fine… More
A gut wrenching and emotionally alive film with superb acting. Evan Rachel Wood and Nikki Reed completely inhabit these roles and make me believe they are actually these drug infused sex machines who go off the deep end at age 13. Of course I now know that Evan Rachel Wood is a fine actress seeing as this was quite a while ago, but if I didn't know I would expect it. Haven't seen much else of Nikki Reed except her role in Twilight, which is minimal, but she has the makings of a good actress/screenwriter with her debut here. Holly Hunter went on to get an Oscar nomination for her role, and it was well deserved. It surprises me that Catherine Hardwicke went on to make Twilight after watching this and seeing how in your face and realistic this movie is compared to that. This movie absolutely gets what being a teenager is like. Twilight did not. Some people won't like this movie because it does go quite far compared to candy coating everything, but that is precisely why I like it.
Spencer S

Shocking and realistic, Evan Rachel Wood delves into another dramatic role, playing the innocent character turned inside out. Great performance by Holly Hunter as the concerned mother.
erika b

It total showed what teens are up to these days. not the best teen film i have seen.
Cassie H

Jeez this movie opened my eyes to how bad teenagers could be. I'm 16 years old right now & I never did any of the things that Evie & Tracy did at 13. When I have kids they will never behave that way. Every parent & teenager should see this movie.
Sophie B

I liked the narrative of this and the way it was filmed. It flowed really really well and had some truth to it although I do think it was highly dramatised. Some parts were quite confusing and the character Tracy was really annoying. The performances were amazing.
Jennifer D

Fabulous well done and acted!
Nani V

So real...I love it!
Craig S

Directed by: Catherine Hardwicke. Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Nikki Reed, Holly Hunter. << "I love you and your brother more than anything in the world. I would die for you, but I… More
Directed by: Catherine Hardwicke. Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Nikki Reed, Holly Hunter. << "I love you and your brother more than anything in the world. I would die for you, but I won't leave you alone right now." >> The story follows an A-grade, 13 year old student who, after getting befriended by the newly popular girl in school, she changes herself physically to get noticed and soon spirals and changes into something else that ultimately affects her and those around her. Catherine Hardwicke really hits you where it hurts here. Sure, the bleak-doco style is nothing original these days in such a film, but Thirteen is made all the more powerful and unexpectedly emotional thanks to Catherine's great skill to control the emotions and channel each of her characters so well and really stick them center stage...and the brilliant handheld work (surprising when I thought it was steadicam) and bleak, bleached-out cinematography which is amazingly shot, really works well alongside it all. What really shocked me was the fact that star Nikki Reed, aged 15 at the time I might add, co-wrote the script for this film and loosely based it on a real-life experience. The script is grounded so far into realism that some might find it too much to take. The characters are brilliantly defined and given enough heart to make us care for them every step of the way, which only adds more to the raw emotion the script throws at us...and thank god it never sinks into soapy-pop culture trends and views. The performances are truly outstanding. Holly Hunter is mind-blowing as the single mother trying to support her family. Her impressive balance between the characters caring notions for her children and her blinded ways of the things around her is simply amazing to watch and when things kick into an emotional gear, her performance gets even more powerful. Everyone seems to automatically point to Holly Hunter as the great performance of the film, but really it belongs to Evan Rachel Wood. For someone with such mediocrity in acting at the time, she takes big steps up and rips through her troubled character with such raw power and understanding and its easy to say that if she keeps this up, she will go far, a truly powerful performance. Thirteen is simply a shockingly and unexpectedly powerful film. A brutally realistic, if slightly exaggerated portrayal of a torn family and the unfortunate reality of teenage life. Brilliantly directed with a familiar style handled so well, powerfully acted and astonishingly written...and with help from the 15 year old co-star Nikki Reed (co-writer), it makes it all the more realistic. It may be a great thing at first to know your kids 'grow up so fast', but think twice. Highly recommended. 85/100 << "If everybody married someone from a different race then in one generation there would be no prejudice." >>
Alice S

Didn't live up to the hype. The character arc is way too much too fast, especially since at the end, we know Tracy is still essentially a "good girl." This wasn't the "overnight" transformation the filmmakers were going for, more like a three-hour one.… More
Didn't live up to the hype. The character arc is way too much too fast, especially since at the end, we know Tracy is still essentially a "good girl." This wasn't the "overnight" transformation the filmmakers were going for, more like a three-hour one. There was no indication at all that Tracy wanted to be popular. One mean comment about her socks tips her over the edge? Also if she really blames her mom for the seedy boyfriend and trouble with Dad, we should have seen more of that at the beginning. If the change was indeed so quick, it was just a ploy for attention but Tracy never lacked it in the first place. Then we see Evie lying and betraying Tracy in the end. She should have been lying the whole time or else the audience feels sympathy for the poor abused hot girl. The movie uses this liminal age to make an incendiary cautionary tale of sorts, but loses out on character development. I'm still not entirely hooked on ERW.
Mark H

Harrowing portrait of teenage life that's a nightmare for any parent with a daughter entering adolescence.
_kelly .

Compared to professional screenplays, this work still stands as well done though it is the first work of a teenager. Sometimes it is a bit melodramatic, but that is mostly in the acting, which though effective at some times, registers as overdone. The cinematography at times achieves… More
Compared to professional screenplays, this work still stands as well done though it is the first work of a teenager. Sometimes it is a bit melodramatic, but that is mostly in the acting, which though effective at some times, registers as overdone. The cinematography at times achieves a pure form of cinema verite rarely seen in modern American dramas. Some people dislike this movie, and claim it is the content, but I believe it is this realistic filming style which is too intense for select viewers. I highly recommend this movie for its overall quality, but especially because it imprinted several shot sequences into my "instant-access" film memory, the mental rolodex you scroll through your head when you're trying to set up a shot of your own.
Bannan i

Kinda scary thinking about how old these kids are in this movie. Proves how corrupt the world really is...and all about 'too much', 'too loud', 'too fast'.
Rachel F

Sort of ridiculous, but it was alright.
Megan S

A pretty disturbing movie. There were so many times when her mother could have noticed something was wrong before it got to be such a problem. Unfortunately I'm sure that this is more a reality than having an involved parent who can step in and stop it. Couldn't she tell… More
A pretty disturbing movie. There were so many times when her mother could have noticed something was wrong before it got to be such a problem. Unfortunately I'm sure that this is more a reality than having an involved parent who can step in and stop it. Couldn't she tell she was freakin' high when she came home and threw the game cards all over the place?
Dean L

You think that this movie is a stretch and that it is out of the realm of the possible? Think again. It is an all too accurate portrayal of what can happen at that age. I have seen it first hand working with struggling, urban kids who are trying to figure out where they fit in this… More
You think that this movie is a stretch and that it is out of the realm of the possible? Think again. It is an all too accurate portrayal of what can happen at that age. I have seen it first hand working with struggling, urban kids who are trying to figure out where they fit in this world. Tough and gritty, real and raw this movie strikes home in a similar vein as movies like "Kids" or "Once Were Warriors." Tough to get through, but just as important to watch you will see the real dangers, the trials and tribulations that a child faces every day just trying to fit into that world that he/she did not create. You will also see what a single parent must face in order to keep the house/family together. Holly Hunter is superb as always and great performances by Evan Rachel Wood and Nikki Reed (who also co-wrote this movie at about the same age!). Brace yourself and watch this film.
Jennifer X

it was very rushy and seemed like evan rachel wood's character got corrupted in like, a week. the dialogues SUCKS. "hey guys, i totally, like, stole this!" it's like a bad sofia coppola movie. (and since she sucks already, that doesn't say too much about this… More
it was very rushy and seemed like evan rachel wood's character got corrupted in like, a week. the dialogues SUCKS. "hey guys, i totally, like, stole this!" it's like a bad sofia coppola movie. (and since she sucks already, that doesn't say too much about this movie) anyways...the breathtaking cinematography saves it from being awful.
Dean M

Catherine Hardwicke's critically acclaimed feature debut is no after-school special from hell. It's a brutal, brilliant family drama with astonishing performances by Evan Rachel Wood, newcomer Nikki Reed (who co-wrote the script with Hardwicke), and Holly Hunter.