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New York City
September 2003

Film Review
by Jan Aaron

Catherine Hardwicke’s directorial debut, Thirteen, is a raw drama about a teenage school girl who jumps from pony-tailed innocence to hard-boiled rebel as tutored by the school’s bad girl. Its objective is to tell the unvarnished truth about what goes on in the lives of young teenagers. The story is based more or less on the experiences of Nikki Reed, who is the films 14 year-old coscriptwriter with Hardwicke.
At the center of the drama is the haunting performance of Evan Rachel Wood as Tracy. Seemingly a well-adjusted kid, though coming from a broken home, she lives with her mother Melanie (Holly Hunter), a recovering alcoholic and struggling hairdresser, and her boyfriend Brady (Jeremy Sisto). Parents planning to see this edgy film with their teen daughters should have already established closeness in their conversations. Leading the coolest clique at school is Evie; whose mature-looks the guys have already noticed. To Tracy’s surprise, Evie invites her to go shopping one afternoon (Tracy’s hard-up mom buys her clothes from vendors selling off of trucks), which turns out to mean shoplifting and stealing a wallet from an old woman. From here, the usually reasonable Tracy becomes sullen, insolent, defiant, drug-taking body piercing, poster girl for the dysfunctional teen, following Evie’s example.

Melanie, who always has treated Tracy like her friend, hasn’t any idea of how to cope with her out-of-control daughter. Nor is her workobsessed dad any help. It’s one of the reasons why Tracy is able to drift so easily into bad behavior with its attention-provoking anorexia and suicide attempt. The picture gets many things right including the way teens talk, but it doesn’t provide enough background on why Tracy, who wrote lovely poetry and made high marks, fell so quickly under Evie’s spell. Still it should be seen! (R-rated; 95 minutes; call 777-FILM for times/places).#

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