Thirteen (2003)

This will i'm sure be the only time I ever watch a movie on Lifetime.  But this was a movie i've heard about and never actually seen, so I watched.  The movie stars Evan Rachel Wood as Tracy Freeland, a troubled teen seeking acceptance in the 7TH GRADE.  She is 13 years old.  When i was 13, I was having my bar-mitzvah and I was feeling pressure about fitting in.  I wasn't sure who I wanted to hang out with.  I wasn't sure who to invite to parties.  I wasn't really friends with girls.  And at my party, all of my "friends" at the time we're telling me i should've invited all these girls from school, which made me feel bad about myself.  The point of that little story is, watch this movie and try to understand what its like to be a 13 year old.  I'd say most of the time it's not as bad as this movie depicts.  But for Nikki Reed, who plays Tracy's new best friend Evie Zamora, this was pretty close to the truth.  Reed starred in the movie and also co-wrote it with director Catherine Hardwicke.  Pretty amazing to think she wrote this and only being 15.  

Evie introduces a world to Tracy that she's never seen before full of alcohol, drugs, sex, crime, self-harm, and hip-hop.  It's troubling to think that there are teenagers going through this everyday.  And to watch Tracy's mother, Mel played by Holly Hunter, to see her have a feeling that something is wrong, but feels there is nothing she could do to get her daughter to talk.  She feels helpless.  Granted, she isn't the best role model, smoking, dating a former cocaine addict.  Living in the house, with a father that feels it is more important to work and make money to help his children, the problems for Tracy start inside the house and then the troubles inside of school and dealing with everything that Evie brought into her life.  It's hard to watch a kid start cutting themselves to deal with the stress.  It makes for the ending to be a real heartbreaker.  

Reed went back to high school and then had to drop out because of parents telling her how inappropriate the movie was.  It was a controversial movie.  But it's here to show the truth of what some teenagers are getting involved with.  I believe it was shot to make a statement to parents to pay attention to your kids.  To teach them right from wrong so they could determine a good and bad crowd.  If you don't prepare them for it, they won't be able to make the right decisions.  So parents in the world, keep an eye on your kids, they grow up real fast, you have to do your part to help them make the right choices.  Even with the controversy, even though it was on Lifetime, it doesn't have the feeling of a Lifetime movie.  The mother isn't the main story.  She's a background story to the troubled 13 year olds.  

A few award nominations to note, Holly Hunter received an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globes nomination for Best Supporting Actress.  Evan Rachel Wood was nominated for Best Actress at the Golden Globes.  Check this movie out, and hell, let your kids watch.  Show them what can happen.  Here's the trailer:

24 FAN ALERT:  If you're a fan of 24 like I am, this movie has two 24 connections.  Brady Corbet, who plays Mason, Tracy's brother played Derek Huxley, the son of Diane, Jack's new girl in Day 5.  Also Sarah Clarke plays Birdie, who of course played Nina Myers, the killer of Jack's wife Teri.  In real life, Clarke is married to Xander Berkeley who played George Mason, Jack's supervisor.  And Mason is the name of Corbet's character on Thirteen. Well, how 'bout that.