Thirteen (2003)

missmiserys March 2, 2020

★ 9/10

This movie is special to me, and it probably always will be. It’s one of the first times I remember feeling “seen” in media as a young person that was starting to struggle with mental illness. It’s not a perfect movie, and I think some of the scenes shouldn’t have really been graphically shown like they were bearing in mind that this is a movie directed at teenagers. However, that is a reality for some people, and I do understand the inclusion. Overall though, this movie does a great job at depicting what it’s like to develop a mental illness and troubled family dynamics and how a mental illness can develop in a situation like that. Evan Rachel Wood gives such a fantastic performance as Tracy at such a young age. I first saw this movie when I was about twelve or thirteen, and although it doesn’t hold quite the same amount of relatability for me that it did then, it…

r96sk May 19, 2023

★ 9/10

Jeez! 'Thirteen' gets deep! I picked this one out on a whim on Prime Video, having known absolutely zilch about it... even after I checked a few minor things about it (checking to see if it has a sequel or whatever, as I do for any film I watch) I was expecting a simple, cliché teen story. I did catch a glimpse of one of Prime's images for it and it looked dramatic, but I just imagined it was the character's overreaction to getting dumped or something silly like that. It wasn't! Even so, across the opening chunk of the movie I was still anticipating the aforementioned. Yet, from just prior to the midway point really, things get deeper by the minute - not long later, I was genuinely hooked. It's a great film. I guess that's why you don't judge a book by its cover and all that, and why I don't read about flicks before watching them - I love being surprised! The performances are t…