Thirteen Movie Review

Thirteen is a movie about a single mother taking care of two teenagers, Tracy and Mason, in a lower-income household. It can currently be watched at 123 movies. She is a hairdresser who works in her house, where female clients often come to her house to get their hair done. The family barely has enough income to pay their bills and take care of their needs, and they often wonder if the teens’ father will send them a monthly child-support check. But they have a decent life, shelter, and food on their table. The movie centers on the thirteen-year-old daughter, Tracy, who starts to suffer from teen issues, and she doesn’t have anyone to turn to because her mother is always busy as well as she never sees her father.

Tracy is not a bad kid, but rather just lonely and needs attention. Since her clothes are ordinary and plain, many trendy girls often make fun of her. In school, she tries to befriend the sexy Evie, a girl who all the guys drool over. Evie seems friendly, but she is a very troubled teen, with very serious issues, which include lying, stealing, promiscuity, shoplifting, drugs, ditching school, and drinking. Tracy runs into Evie and another girl at a Melrose Avenue store, but they mock Tracy and don’t want anything to do with her. While sitting outside on a bus stop bench, she decides to steal a woman’s wallet to impress Evie. That gets Evie’s attention, and they start hanging out with each other. Evie trains Tracy to become a badass like her, and Tracy starts to shoplift, lie, steal, ditch class, and act promiscuously to attract guys. Tracy eventually gets her tongue pierced like Evie. And, in Tracy’s bedroom, Evie pierces Tracy’s belly button.

Befriending Evie has made Tracy’s life even worse than before. She is more stressed-out than ever, and she starts to cut herself. Tracy and Evie often purposely hit each other until they bleed in order to get a high out of it, mostly because they feel numb inside and they need to feel pain in order to feel alive. The guidance counselor contacts Tracy about her truancy, telling her that she may not pass at the end of the year because she has missed too many classes. Also, Tracy doesn’t like her mother’s boyfriend. All these things add up, building tension in the household. Tracy erupts at everyone, and her mother can no longer handle her. She calls her ex-husband to take care of Tracy, but he is not interested.

Evie persuades Tracy’s mother to let her move into their house but Evie’s guardian Brooke, who is her older cousin as well as a model/actress can no longer afford to pay Evie’s rent; and therefore, Tracy’s mother tells Evie she can’t move in with them.

This sudden change of plans upsets Evie, and she starts to ignore Tracy. Evie’s group no longer wants to hang out with Tracy which makes Tracy feel worse than ever and she begins to mutilate herself more. Then, one day, Tracy enters her house, to see her mother, Brooke, and Evie waiting for her, and they each look alarmed. Evie told them more lies about Tracy, and Tracy’s mother had seen all of the things that Tracy has in her bedroom, including lots of money. They also notice all of Tracy’s cuts and scars. Brooke thinks Tracy is a bad influence on Evie, claiming that Evie is very innocent and she was still playing with her barbies before she met Tracy. Tracy tries to tell them the truth, but no one listens to her. She is blamed for everything.

Tracy is alone again, with all the tension in her household. The movie ends when they all become aware of Tracy’s problems, and her mother holds a screaming Tracy on the kitchen floor, trying to comfort her and be there for her.

I thought it was an interesting, but sad, movie because of the sociological and psychological aspects of the story about a thirteen-year-old girl trying to grow up and deal with her problems. Like most teens, she learns the hard way by making many bad choices on her own, which worsens her current situation, and tries to deal with everything as well as clean up the mess to get back to her normal life again. Her experiences force as well as teach her to grow up fast, deal with her issues on her own in order to grow up and move on in life. I feel this movie is a true depiction of many teenagers in society, especially of the teens living in lower socio-economic areas or classes. Most of these kids don’t have much of anything, including support, and they end up struggling through various bad choices, sometimes leading to prison. drug addiction, or even death. The end of this movie seems open-ending because we don’t know if Tracy ends up getting the help, whether from her mother, father, or professional help.