Review of Thirteen (1988) by Jason J — 11 Nov 2010

This film was hailed when it was released in 2003 as remarkably insightful. I find it to be heavily overrated and particularly lacking in the honesty which made people step back upon watching Larry Clark's 1995 drama "Kids".

We get the story of one rather shy teenage girl living under minimal parental direction who strives to be adored by the risque popular girl, Evie who is the embodiment of all things young and delinquent.

So, what we have is the result of teenage girls, pretentious and pompous, pseudo-daring and of course, crass materialists, which is a formula for some truly annoying lead characters who evoke little (if any) sympathy from the viewer.

Nothing seems to be taken too seriously, but rather, is intended for some kind of artificial shock value and to be crammed all into one movie, despite the better intentions of the filmmakers. Don't bother with this overhyped piece of garbage.

Tried too hard and fell flat on it's face.