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08/23/03
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Thirteen (2003)
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Reviews Counted:142
Fresh:116
Rotten:26
Average Rating:7.3/10
Consensus: An emotionally wrenching, not to mention terrifying, film about the perils of being a teenager.
Theatrical Release:Aug 20, 2003 Limited
Box Office: $4,500,238
Synopsis: THIRTEEN is Catherine Hardwicke's explosive portrait of teenage girls at their very worst. Mean, manipulative, conniving, and utterly out of control, these skinny, sexy, drug-addicted, 13-year-old... [More]
Starring: Holly Hunter, Evan Rachel Wood, Nikki Reed, Jeremy Sisto
Director: Catherine Hardwicke
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Reviews for Thirteen
It would take exceptionally clueless parents to buy into Thirteen's premise, while real teens will most likely treat the film with disdain.
08/23/03
Only people who have forgotten their own adolescence, or who are terrified of relinquishing it, could find it startling to discover that teenagers do things to shock their parents.
08/22/03
Top CriticThe characters are so perfectly drawn and the performances so raw and so brilliant that the film manages to have an amazing impact.
08/22/03
Warning: This movie may have uncomfortable similarities to events in your life.
08/22/03
Top CriticThirteen is a provocative peek into the raw world of modern urban adolescence -- but it's a peek with lots of thought, and some fine filmmaking, behind it.
08/22/03
Top Critic. . .no adult, and certainly no parent, should have to endure the attention-grabbing temper tantrum that is Thirteen.
08/22/03
An antidote to such recent pop tart fare as What a Girl Wants and The Lizzie McGuire Movie, Thirteen shares more in common with Kids . . .
08/22/03
It's well worth seeing, even at the risk of making you want to lock your daughter in her room for the next six years.
08/22/03
Thirteen has a way of smashing through your defenses.
08/22/03
Many cuts above most big-screen soap operas.
08/21/03
The movie style is as volatile as a rebellious teen -- at times veering over the top. The acting is impressive, though, particularly by Reed, Wood, and Hunter.
08/21/03
It's what the controversial and overrated Kids should have been -- unflinching and honest, but not bleak.
08/21/03
They say that the two worst years of a woman's life are the year she is 13 and the year her daughter is. This film gives us both at once.
08/20/03
The film doesn’t negate or sidestep the land mines of modern teen life and parenting, but it often veers into Reefer Madness cautionary territory.
08/20/03
Compellingly sheds light on a terrifying world
08/20/03
It's just the latest in the long and proud tradition of pictures that exclaim, with a great deal of hand-wringing, 'Kids today!' If only it brought us closer to understanding them.
08/20/03
Top CriticAs an insightful critique of 'Girl Culture' and the mounting war over the hearts and minds of adolescent girls that's currently being waged in the media, it's mandatory viewing.
08/20/03
Thirteen is a high impact psychodrama about three lost souls desperately reaching out for life preservers in a sea of troubles.
08/20/03
It's tough to recall the last such drama that packed as much emotional clout.
08/20/03
Top CriticLatest News for Thirteen
November 30, 2006:
Critical Consensus: "Nativity" Is Too Safe; "Turistas" Not Worth Trip
This week at the movies, we've got a new take on the first Noel ("The Nativity Story," starring Keisha Castle-Hughes), endangered Americans in Brazil... More...
September 29, 2005:
"Dogtown" Director to Handle the "Monkey Wrench Gang"
Variety reports that Catherine Hardwicke, director of "Thirteen" and "Lords of Dogtown," will develop "The Monkey Wrench Gang" for Columbia... More...
July 15, 2005:
Trailer Bulletin: Pretty Persuasion
One of Sundance's more buzzed-about films was the dark high school comedy "Pretty Persuasion," and now you can check out the trailer over at Quicktime's Trailer Site.... More...
September 10, 2003:
Haunting, gritty, and very “real,” novice director Catherine Hardwicke delivers a shockingly poignant gem in Sundance’s coming-of-age teenage drama “Thirteen” proving that luck is all in the eye of the beholder. 
More...
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