Thirteen (film)

Infobox Film
name = Thirteen


caption = Theatrical release poster
director = Catherine Hardwicke
producer = Jeff Levy-Hinte
Michael London
writer = Catherine Hardwicke
Nikki Reed
starring = Evan Rachel Wood
Nikki Reed
Holly Hunter
Brady Corbet
music = Mark Mothersbaugh
distributor = Fox Searchlight
released = August 20, 2003
runtime = 100 min.
country = flagicon|USA
language = English
budget = $1.5 million
gross = $4,599,680
amg_id = 1:278975
imdb_id = 0328538

"Thirteen" is a 2003 film co-written by Catherine Hardwicke (who also directed) and Nikki Reed (who had a leading role). It is an autobiographical film based on Reed's experiences as a 12 and 13-year-old. The script was written in six days and originally meant to be a comedy.20th Century Fox Home Entertainment DVD video release, "Thirteen" (audio commentary by Hardwicke, Reed Wood and Corbet), UPC/EAN: 024543106586, 27 January 2004] The film caused controversy upon its release because it dealt with topics such as underage sexual behavior along with drug and alcohol abuse and self-harm.

Plot

Thirteen-year-old Tracy Freeland (Evan Rachel Wood) is a straight-A student who writes poetry. At her Los Angeles middle school, she is teased about her "cabbage patch" clothes by more popular girls. Her divorced mother Melanie (Holly Hunter) is a recovering substance abuser and high school dropout who struggles as a hairdresser to earn enough to support Tracy and her older brother Mason, who is an avid surfer. She buys Tracy a few new clothing items from a discount vendor in a van. Thus clothed and much to her delight, Tracy is invited by Evie Zamora (Nikki Reed), the most popular girl, to go shopping in Hollywood. Although Evie gives her a disconnected telephone number, likely as a mean middle school joke or ploy, Tracy takes the bus to Hollywood anyway. She finds Evie and a friend, only to learn that to them, shopping means "shoplifting". Undaunted, Tracy steals a woman's pocketbook and the teens go on a shopping spree, whereafter Tracy and Evie become fast friends. Evie moves into the Freeland house and the two girls go into a downward spiral of hard drugs, sex, lies, piercings and petty crime. Meanwhile Tracy is upset about and torn between her divorced parents, both of whom are struggling to earn enough money to live. Tracy shuns her old, faithful friends and at home, taunts Melanie's boyfriend, a former cocaine addict. Melanie sees hints of what is happening with the two girls but is unable to stop them, further thwarted by Evie's manipulative but likely truthful claims of childhood abuse. As Tracy steadily shuts Melanie out of her life, Tracy and Evie become very close, even talking to each other in their own "gobbledigook" language. However, after the early thrills, Tracy's newfound popularity does not make her happier. In one episode, underage Evie and Tracy try to seduce Luke, a lifeguard in his early twenties who is a friend of Mason. Drawn at first into their kisses, Luke throws them out of his house and soon after, puts the house up for rent and moves away. All along, Tracy has taken to cutting her arm as a way to cope with her stress. One night in Hollywood her brother Mason and a friend make comments about a cute girl who has her back to them. When she turns around and answers with a scathing remark, he is shocked to see this is his sister, with a belly ring. Back home, the two girls have become so numbed they even laughingly hit each other for kicks, drawing blood. At last, Melanie is able to take Evie back to live with her guardian Brooke, an aging model and aspiring actor who also works as a bartender. Tracy seems to agree with this step, after which Evie snubs and betrays her at school.

Failing seventh grade, former honour-roll student Tracy comes home to find Evie, her guardian Brooke and Melanie waiting for her. When the women confront Tracy about her drug use and stealing, Tracy angrily blames Evie. Brooke says Tracy was the bad influence and that they are moving to Ojai, to get away from her. Melanie stands up for her daughter, saying Tracy was "playing with Barbies" when she met Evie. Brooke than grabs Tracy and pulls her sleeve up to show Melanie the many cuts and long scars on her daugher's left arm. Melanie, taken aback and shaken by this sight, tells Brooke and Evie to leave. Both mother and daughter weep on the kitchen floor as Melanie kisses her daughter's heavily cut arm. Although Tracy pleadingly tells her mother to let go of her Melanie holds on tight and they wind up in Tracy's room where they carry on hugging and fall asleep. The movie ends the next morning as Tracy wakes up with a start and later spins alone on a merry-go-round in the park, screaming.

Cast (in order of appearance)

*Evan Rachel Wood as Tracy Louise Freeland
*Nikki Reed as Evie Zamora
*Holly Hunter as Melanie Freeland
*Brady Corbet as Mason Freeland
*Ulysses Estrada as Rafa
*Sarah Blakely-Cartwright as Medina
*Sarah Clarke as Birdie
*Jasmine Di Angelo as Kayla
*Vanessa Anne Hudgens as Noel
*Tessa Ludwick as Yumi
*Kip Pardue as Luke
*Jeremy Sisto as Brady
*Cynthia Ettinger as Cynthia
*Deborah Kara Unger as Brooke LaLaine
*Charles Duckworth as Javi

Production

Director Catherine Hardwicke has called Nikki Reed a "surrogate daughter," had known her since she was five years old and the two began the screenplay as a comedy project which would be shot to video at minimal cost. However when their screenplay, written in six days, quickly shifted and grew into a tale of early teen angst and self-destrution in Los Angeles, with Tracey's character drawn from Reed's own recent experiences as a pre and early teen, Hardwicke didn't think it would be fitting for Reed to play herself and auditioned hundreds of girls for the part. After becoming aware of Evan Rachel Wood, Hardwicke came to believe she could make the film only with Wood in the role of Tracy and only that year, with Wood at that age. Hardwicke has said Holly Hunter's agreement to play the role of Tracey's mother Melanie was a key boost to bringing the production together. About $2,000,000 was then raised, almost all through independent equity financing, a very low budget for any American film meant for general cinematic release in the early 21st century. Most of the adult actors were widely known and all of them reportedly agreed to low pay because they liked the script along with other members of the cast and crew. Wood and Reed were both 14 during filming (Wood turned 15 during the shoot). Their first audition together was at Hardwicke's house, which wound up as a slumber party that night. The wardrobe worn by the girls was mostly their own. As the filming progressed, they began dressing similarly without being told to. Although the girls are seen smoking, the cigarettes were made mostly with catnip. The crushed pills they are shown snorting from the cover of a children's book were harmless dietary supplements. During the belly piercing scene, the line in which Tracy asks "What the fuck did you do?" was not scripted but rather, Reed's thumb had slipped and she accidentally stabbed the top of Wood's belly button with the needle, from which she carried a scar. Although Reed's tongue ring was real, Wood wore a costume version held onto her tongue by a small suction cup which was painful when taken off. Wood later said she swallowed a few during filming. All of the scenes in which Tracey cuts herself were shot in a single day and Wood recalled running to her brother for emotional support between some takes. Wood later described the shooting of the scene in Luke's house as "awkward." The whole scene was rendered in a single, long and uncut take with Wood, Reed and Pardue but was tightly choreographed with several crew members, social workers and parents also in the small room, carefully staying either hidden or behind the camera as it panned more than 200°, showing all four walls.

The movie was shot on lower cost super 16mm film. The camera was small, had a Panavision lens and was mostly hand held by cinematographer Elliot Davis. This allowed shooting in very tight spots, such as in the bathroom. One tracking scene was shot with the camera mounted on a discarded shopping cart which the crew happened to find nearby. More or less all of the scenes were filmed on location, some on Hollywood Boulevard and at Venice Beach. The Freeland home scenes were shot at a rented house on Babcock Avenue in the San Fernando Valley. The many outdoor school scenes were shot at Portola Middle School in Tarzana, most of them on a single Saturday in searing heat. Many of the extras were students, a few were crew members. Some scenes in the film were carefully and colourfully lit, others were shot only with whatever daylight could be had. The shooting schedule was limited to less than a month and the underage actors could only work 9 1/2 hours each day, closely supervised by a paid social worker. Taken altogether, this reportedly made for a frenetic production atmosphere which cast and crew later said matched the script and added to the film's fast and emotionally taut pace. The film stock was transferred to the digital domain where the colours and saturation were highly manipulated for some segments.

"Thirteen" was picked up by a major distributor only after all production was completed. Because of the film's R rating in North America, the underage stars had to be accompanied by adults to see it at public showings.

Critical reception

"Thirteen" received positive reviews. The film is currently rated as 82 percent "certified" fresh on the Tomatometer, including 89 percent fresh among cream of the crop critics. [ [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/thirteen/ Thirteen - Movie Reviews, Trailers, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes ] ]
Holly Hunter was nominated for 2003 Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Both Hunter and Evan Rachel Wood were nominated for Golden Globes the same year, respectively for Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress in a Drama.

oundtrack

The score was written by Mark Mothersbaugh.

Track listing
# "Mas" - Kinky
# "Super Bad Girl" - Iffy
# "The Equaliser" - Clinic
# "Ivanka" - Imperial Teen
# "(So I'll Sit Here) Waiting" - The Like
# "Make It With The Best" - Folk Implosion
# "Beso" - Carmen Rizzo
# "Killer Inside Me (Meat Beat Manifestation Mix)" - MC 900 Ft. Jesus
# "Explain It To Me" - Liz Phair
# "Lemon" - Katy Rose
# "Pay Attention To Me" - Orlando Brown
# "The Freshest" - The Freshmaka
# "Nicotine" - Anet
# "Bien Caliente (Edit)" - The Tormentos
# "Score: The Shoot Out" - Mark Mothersbaugh
# "Score: Hit Me" - Mark Mothersbaugh

References

External links

* [http://www.antidotefilms.com/films/thirteen/thirteen.html Official site]
*imdb title|id=328538|title=Thirteen
*rotten-tomatoes|id=thirteen|title=Thirteen
*mojo title|id=thirteen|title=Thirteen
*amg movie|id=1:278975|title=Thirteen
*Ymovies title|id=1808450790|title=Thirteen
* [http://www.movienet.com/thirteen.html Movienet] – article by screenwriter