Not when I was Thirteen

I remember hearing a couple of years ago about this small art film called Thirteen (2003) that was co-written by one of its young actors. After seeing the film, I think you can tell that it was written by someone so young. However, I don’t that’s necessarily a bad thing.

Let me begin with the worst thing about this movie, which is the acting. These actors are young and inexperienced, and it shows. However, they’re also convincing. I believed that these kids were going through this, so their acting couldn’t have been all that bad. One of the girls played up the fake nice girl too much, and the other one played up the irate bad girl too much, always screaming at her mother that she hated her. But perhaps real life is like that. In some ways, these girls appeared as stereotypes or caricatures, with the exception that they change over the course of the movie. But maybe caricature is the point. Perhaps we’re all just caricatures when we’re thirteen. In some ways, I know I was like the main character. I rebelled against everything my parents had or did, like most of teenagers. But watching it onscreen is demystifying, like pulling the veil back on the wizard to find some horror beneath it. This isn't like watching kids in a Disney flick; this is like watching you when you were thirteen--not a pretty sight.

So if the acting was the worst thing, and I still found it convincing, then this must be a good movie, right? Yeah, it really is. The problem, though, which has nothing to do with the quality of the movie, is that the plot is terrifying.

I have daughter that is nearly a year old, you see, and I am dreading the point twelve years from now, primarily because of this movie. Yes, I always dreaded the teenage years, but, man, this film made me AFRAID of them! Watching the downward spiral this nice girl travels is one of the worst things I have ever seen. I was afraid that she would end up dead or in a hospital, but, as my wife called it, there is a touch of hope.

Watching Holly Hunter (wwho was excellent, of course—I have always loved her, ever since Raising Arizona (1987)) struggle with her daughter was disheartening and hopeful at the same time. I won’t tell you what happens at the end, but it really is very neat without being cheesy. In some ways, my wife and I are probably like Holly Hunter’s character. We’re both still into popular culture, and I want my daughter to do what she wants and make her own decisions, as long as she doesn’t hurt herself. That’s what Hunter tries to do here. Even though her daughter fights her every step of the way, she still struggles to reach her, and it’s wonderful to watch, although, as I keep saying, scary, too.

Overall, this film is pretty great. Yes, it’s a bit too much at times, but not on the scale of Kids (1995), which is just hopeless and so unbelievable (yet true, I’m sure) that I can’t consider it. This film seems somewhat realistic, which is what also makes it so scary.

Grade: 7