THIRTEEN
US, 2003, 100 minutes, Colour.
Holly Hunter, Evan Rachel Wood, Nikki Reed, Jeremy Sisto, Brady Corbet, Kip Pardue, Vanessa Hudgens, Deborah Kara Unger, D.W. Moffett.
Directed by Catherine Hardwicke.
A close-up on contemporary Girls' Culture in the US, especially at the onset of puberty, puberty blues, where thirteen year old girls experience the angst of past generations but find themselves in a permissive and rootless Californian society where glamour and flaunting it are everything, where media dictate what is fashion and what is not, where opportunities for drinking, for drugs and for sex are immediately available and where parents, their own struggles still going on and marriages being fragile or broken, try to exercise some authority and discipline but their efforts are futile. Welcome to one of the principal parents' nightmares. Thirteen.
One hopes that this is not too much the case with most families. On the other hand, it is the perennial context in affluent societies for girls to experience rejection, question self-image and identity, rely too much on peer influence and pressure and make a mess of their lives.
Catherine Hardwicke won the director award at the Sundance Festival 2003 for this, her first film. Trained as an architect and working as a set designer with many well-known directors, she ventured into writing, especially with the alienated daughter of a close friend. The daughter, Nikki Reed, had just gone through her thirteens and was encouraged to share in the writing of the screenplay. Nikki Reed appears in the film, not as Tracy, the girl who embodies so much of her experience, but as Evi, her precocious and provocative best friend. The role of Tracy is played very well by Evan Rachel Wood. There is a strong adult contingent in the film, led my Holly Hunter as Tracy's well-meaning but floundering mother, Jeremy Sisto as her ex-druggie boyfriend and Debora Kara Unger as Eva's stepmother.
The film is set in LA with its combination of real and unreal. Perhaps the treatment is sometimes larger than life and audiences might react by saying this is too much. However, for the impact of the film and its challenge to thirteen year old girls and their parents, the melodramatic tone gets attention and keeps it. What will become of Tracy?
1.A slice of life, real, authentic, not? The US, affluent world? Impact for American audiences? World audiences?
2.Los Angeles, the symbol of US affluence, permissiveness? The cityscapes, homes, schools, shops? The teenagers and their hangouts? The musical score?
3.The title, the focus, the girls and their age, a film about girls, not boys? The boys on the periphery, Mason, Luke and the others?
4.The focus on Tracy, being high with Evi, going back three months, audience expectations of her fall?
5.Tracy as an ordinary girl, her relationship with Melanie, with Mason, the absent father? Her mother’s boyfriend? Going to school, Mason introducing her and her friend, looking too straight, conventional? Looking at the other girls and their flaunting their style? Admiring Evi, talking with her, becoming friends, her hopes? Leaving her old friends behind?
6.School life, the boys and the girls, the girls and their clothes, behaviour, snobs, fashion, the mean girls syndrome? In class, the teachers?
7.Tracy and Evi, the bond of friendship, sharing ideas, the elaborate scenes of shopping, flirting with the boys, giggling? Shoplifting? Evi stealing the wallet, the money and cards, the gift to Tracy? Changes in hairstyle, makeup, the piercings? The girls and their attitudes?
8.Mason, older, smoking pot, his friends, the clash with Tracy? The relationship with his mother?
9.Melanie as ordinary, trying to do her best, allowing her daughter freedom, not knowing what was happening, work at home, hair stylist, her friends and clients? Her being upset at Tracy’s talk in front of her clients? Money, talking with her daughter, losing contact with her, her daughter shutting the door in her face, her bewilderment?
10.Tracy’s attitude towards her mother, on the phone with her father, shutting her mother out, despising her mother? With Evi? Evi at Melanie’s house, the bond between them, criticising her stepmother? Evi and her story, meeting the stepmother, going out to work? Her disappearance and Evi staying with Melanie?
11.Brady, Melanie’s boyfriend, his arrival, Tracy’s dislike and spurning him, meals, at home, the drugs, his trying to help Tracy?
12.Tracy’s father, unable to help, the visit, talking, the need for jobs to support the family?
13.Tracy, lapsing with her studies, the teacher and the threat of failure, repeating a year? Her decision to leave home?
14.Melanie and Brooke? Their discussions, attitudes towards their daughters, the discovery of the drugs, the money, the confrontation?
15.Brooke telling Tracy off, telling her she was a bad influence? Evi insulting Mel and the smell of the house?
16.The boys, permissive, Luke, at home, the girls under age, sexual experiments – and then his sending the girls away?
17.The final frame, the focus on Tracy? Portrait, indictment? Hope or not?
