Thirteen Movie Review

Teenage adolescence is a time of transformation and self discovery. All of a sudden people you were friends with aren’t there for you anymore, your looks matter more than ever, and emotions are at an all-time high. Most times you’ll find yourself hanging around people you’d never imagine just in hopes you’ll fit in. Surrounding yourself with the correct people can impact you positively, you’ll grow confidence and find a sense of community while surrounding yourself around the wrong crowd can do the complete opposite. Losing yourself in an endless spiral is easy to fall victim to and a movie that captures this perfectly is Thirteen. Written and directed by Catherine Hardwicke in 2003, Set in Los Angeles, Thirteen follows Tracy Freeland, a carefree and shy young girl entering the 7th grade. As any girl her age would, she’s still clinging onto her youth going through the awkward transition between elementary to middle school that everyone experiences. It’s shown Tracy feels left out as everyone else is acting so differently and more mature causing her to feel invisible and feeling the need to be accepted by her peers. Everything shifts when Evie Zamora comes into her life. Unlike Tracy, Evie is confident, mature, and popular. She embodies everything Tracy aspires to be. Feeling determined, Tracy makes it her goal to be noticed by Evie going through a transformation that happens almost overnight. It starts tame, changing her style, her personality, and distancing herself from her old friends. However, it gets worse after she does catch the attention of Evie. The two become inseparable doing things like partying, shoplifting, and overall reckless acts no thirteen year old should be doing. Evie begins to manipulate and crawl deeper into Tracy’s life going as far as creating a stronger relationship with her mother Mel. Evie begins to turn her own mother against Tracy which causes a downward spiral as Tracy’s mental decline is only heightened. The film ends with Tracy sitting on a tire swing crying to herself symbolizing the irreparable damage and her loss of childhood innocence. Something interesting the film does is change the color the film is shot in as Tracy becomes more and more like Evie. It becomes more blue representing her deteriorating mental health as the film progresses. Though Thirteen is a very exaggerated and unrealistic representation of being in middle school, viewers still find it relatable due to the feeling of wanting to be noticed and the feeling of being childish while everyone around is growing. This is something that plagues schools across the country, every year children are forcing themselves to act older than what they actually are to fit in. Kids are no longer kids and Thirteen is just a depiction of it.