Thirteen

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I'm not really that good at writing reviews, but I'll try:


Thirteen - ***1/2



Thirteen was a great, very interesting film. The film stars the young and very talented Evan Rachel Wood as Tracy, a young teenager who hangs out with her friends, spends time with her mom, does her own thing, just minds her own business, just doing teen stuff. On the year of the film, she is starting her 7th year of school, one day she notices all the boys love this girl named Evie, played by the writer of the film Nikki Reed. Evie one day makes fun of Tracy's style of clothes, this makes Tracy very upset and immediately wants to purchase new clothes. She impresses Evie with her new clothes, but not nearly as enough as we think. Evie gives Tracy a fake phone number. This leads to Tracy's first act of crime, stealing a purse full of money just to impress Evie.

Nikki Reed wrote an excellent screenplay here, the teen characters never speak corny dialogue like most teens in films do. Reed really impressed me with her writing, but all the credit just doesn't go to her. We have to give some credit to the co-writer and director Catherine Hardwicke, she does a terrific job as a first time director. These events were really based on the life events of Nikki Reed, which is in a way kind of sad and makes you feel bad for this person and the character. Reed and Hardwicke only wrote the screenplay in six days, which really impresses me.

Eventually Evie becomes so attached to Tracy that she moves in with her, from here on, Tracy goes very wild. After Evie moves in, everything in Tracy's family life goes to hell once she starts doing the following: Drugs, having sex with boys, buying slutty clothes, and starts to cut herself. Evie always acts nice to Tracy's mom Mel, which is played by the great actress Holly Hunter. We can never be sure Evie is telling the truth or lying, her specialty is lying. But when she talks to Mel, she sounds so serious, that we can't be sure if she's telling the truth.

Evan Rachel Wood has some real talent, not to be wasted. She makes this character seem so real, like she's Tracy. Wood never shows a moment of dissapointment in her acting, her acting is Grade A for an actress her age. I just wish she appears in more films like this, I hope she comes out in more great films to come. Nikki Reed never dissapoints either, for her first film, she does a terrific job. Her acting is above average, she really has it. For a first time actress and screenwriter, well let me just say I'm very impressed.

Holly Hunter's character, Mel the mother, I think is the hardest to play. Her character had to put up with all this crap from her daughter, her acting is always excellent. Mel loves Tracy, but she just can't take anymore of her bad behavior. She doesn't suspect that Tracy learned this bad behavior from Evie. She doesn't wanna send Evie back to her home because Evie and Tracy always tell Mel stories of abuse at Evie's home. Hunter really does an excellent performance with this character, and does deserve a nomination for it. Mel just can't take it anymore and tries to see if Tracy's dad can help, but that only makes things worse.

WARNING: "Thirteen" spoilers below
In the last scene of the film, Evie turns on Tracy, she doesn't want to get in trouble for herself and blames everything on Tracy when in fact everything bad that has happened is her fault.This is probably the most emotional scene of the film, the reaction we get at the end from Tracy and Mel is very emotional and probably the best scene of the film.


I don't think Thirteen is for everyone, if you wanna see a good movie with excellent writing and direction, see this one. If you wanna see a very serious teen film about serious teen issues, see this one. I loved the camera movements in this film, I thought they were very cool. Great direction by Catherine Hardwicke, I hope she directs more films in the future, I would definately love to see them. This film is what it is, a teen film, but a very serious and good one. This movie almost had everything, great direction, great writing, great acting, great editing, and great cinematography. If you wanna see one of the best films of last year, then see Thirteen.



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so thirteen is like, you know, an i-was-a-teenage-wild-child, totally real hand-held shakey camera, really gritty grainy video and not just larry clarke lite even if that's what some of the old fogey crits are saying, this is kidz 4-real - like wow(!!!) does it get any more radical than that?!? i wanna scream, listen to my scream - aaaaaaarrrrrrgggghhhhhhh!!!!! like, wow! that was great! and so was the film!!!

ok, so it does look a bit too much like kevin-the-teenager on drugs (that's like, cause, you know, they so are on drugs - ha ha) or even an episode of the sweet-and-veering-on-saccharine my so called life, only on drugs (i've done that joke, haven't? but i so liked it i think i'll do it again - that's like, cause, you know, they so are on drugs - ha ha. wow, even funnier second time round, rad) but it's like, soo totally real, really like my so called life! yeah! talk to me dude, not at me!!!

but - and get this, this is just, like, you know, soooo rad - the film is an mtv flick but no one in the film watches mtv!!! so you can't go blaming mtv for ****ing these kidz up, that's for sure, cause it doesn't! if you're a boring old git with no life blame it on hormones (you sexist bastard, i hope your hair falls out - ha, it probably has already, you're sooo boring and so totally not popular - ha!) and if you're even a bit in touch with your inner child (like, that's just so cool, go us, inner children are cool!), you'll know it's really about your parents not loving you enough, cause, like, you know, without parental love, we all turn into the people in this film, tossing our teddy bears and barbie dolls in the bin and getting seriously heavy into drugs and drink and boys and girls and piercings and stealing and all that cool stuff that makes up for the love your parents never gave you!!! yeah!!!

ok, so they're these two fifteen year olds-going-on-twenty playing two thirteen year old lower-middle-class-suburban-trailer-thrash-tweenage-kidults keeping it real in a so not ****ing amal kind of way (there isn't a sub-title in sight, cause, like, hello, sub-titles are sooooo tedious and not for pop people, leave them for the espresso-slurping poloneck wearing nerds - yeah!) and evey is like a bit of a manipulating little cow, with all her stories of different people abusing her, and tracey is just a spoilt child going through a six-month radical binge and the mom is an unreconstructed hippie on a twelve-step programme and the dad is just a plot cliché (but hey, he's got a mobile phone! and it rings! real!) and there's no one else of consequence in the film though you've probly seen half the cast before in other teen angst flicks, from rules of attraction to raising victor vargas but it's still like totally brilliant!!!

and so what if it's all been said before, that was by your parents and like hello, no one listens to them, do they, they're like so not cool, are they? yeah! so us goldfish memory kidz have to keep it real and make it new every six or nine months and like, this is the really radical bit, it was so totally co-written by a real thirteen year old, how real can you get?!? radical! a-to-the-b-to-the-c-to-the-d yeah!!! keep it real!!! but with a happy ending, cause like you know, sad endings are just so sucky!!!

but the best bit - and i mean like the best bit bar none in the whole ever ever of the whole film! - is that there's ads for two new films from jack black and john cusack - you can keep the black adventures of ezekiel balls, i don't like him (shallow hal was like, you know, just so offensive. you think she could have gone on a diet, like, you know - or even taken up anorexia, yeah, that's so now!), but i am soooo in the queue for the cusack operation kandahar, he's so cute i want to eat him!!! waaaaaaaaayyyyyyy!!!! it's all totally brilliant! i love my mtv!!!
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Nice review Ezekiel… I’m going to add this one to my “to see” list…
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For a strange reason it sounds like my mom's childhood! Anyway I can't say I can't relate to that movie but it sounds like a very touching story.
I might if I have time go see it since it is up I think for award. and I want to put my rating and review in here so I got to go rent it!See you around!JM PS-Is it a tear jecker?
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Do you know my poetry?
Originally Posted by Jackie Malfoy
PS-Is it a tear jecker?
, No not really, there was one part that was a bit emotional but it never actually made me cry.



Well I know what I am going to be watching this weeken!That is if my stupid stepfather will let me rent it. Maybe I should wait until sunday night when I am at my dad's house instead!
Anyway thanks for your respond see you around!JM



Very good Ezikiel, very flippin' good! I'm going to see this flick soon, I'll wait to really post until then, but I wanted to make sure you knew that I appreciated your input.
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