Complex, tough messages. Tracy's downward spiral is clearly dangerous and painful -- but as a cautionary tale about the dark side of peer pressure, it's harshly compelling. The young characters participate in every kind of iffy activity you can think of -- recreational sex, stealing, lying -- but the consequences of their poor choices are unflinchingly clear. Tracy and her mother have a difficult relationship, and her mom doesn't always make the best parenting decisions, but she clearly loves her daughter very much.
Positive Role Models
very little
No parent would want their tween or teen following in Tracy and Evie's footsteps. Their list of dangerous behavior is a mile long, and their attitude is terrible. Still, it's clear that Tracy is hurting and vulnerable underneath her brash facade, which makes her an empathetic character. Single mom Melanie is a recovering alcoholic who's often at her wits' end about how to deal with her daughter, but she never stops loving her.
Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that this movie's R rating comes from frank and explicit -- but thoughtful -- treatment of the subject matter -- how peer pressure can lure kids away from their moorings and their families. Characters constantly use very strong language. Teenagers engage in every possible self-destructive behavior -- they smoke, take drugs, steal, lie, and pierce their tongues and belly buttons. They have sex that is so casual it is almost anonymous. There is also adult substance abuse and every one acts out. There are very tense family confrontations. This is a good example of how the MPAA rating system fails, because there are stupid comedies that deal with the same issues as this movie that are rated PG-13. This movie --if your teen can handle very mature subject matter -- deals more intelligently and forthrightly with the consequences of the behavior it depicts than some PG-13 offerings. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails.
When you kids start to get older (in secondary) they are going to be HEAVILY influenced but that doesn’t mean you have to be strict helicopter parents. Me myself watch this film when it first came out (I was 12) I wasn’t influenced but I did tell mg friends about it and THEY WENT EITHER, even tho that’s a very small scale nobody I knew was effected. In the end your child are ‘likely’ to do these things so they might as well hear it from you first.
Good movie for kids to learn about what you should not do when your a teenager
This movie is very good but deals with heavy topics but your focused on the main story of the movie and the storyline is not really about drugs but you do see some of them doing it. You have to make sure your kids now about substance abuse it's a good movie kids to learn would they should do and not do in high school. So now if you want to get into the bad parts there is one sex scene in tho whole movie lasts about 5 seconds no nudity or roughness. There is one scene where the mom is shirtless in the shower and it shows her full boobs for about 10 seconds. but that is it it has more of a teenage mental breakdown high school storyline than an adult one. It sends great messages though but you have to tell your kids to not do any of the stuff that the teens do in the movie. No party scenes and like 3 to 2 drug senses. But my 11 year old loved this movie and I saw it when it came out its a very entertaining movie.
What's the Story?
They say that the two worst years of a woman's life are the year she is 13 and the year her daughter is. We get to experience both at once in THIRTEEN, about 7th grader Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood), who's catapulted into self-destructive behavior because she wants so badly to be accepted, to be cool, and to numb some of the pain of growing up. Tracy lives with her brother Mason (Brady Corbet) and their mother, Mel (Holly Hunter), a loving but damaged recovering alcoholic who does her best to support the family. On the first day of 7th grade, there are always a couple of kids who really hit the puberty jackpot over the summer. Just as the rest are at their most clumsy, insecure, and vulnerable, those impossibly sure and golden kids appear to have arrived at the destination while everyone else is still trying to find the map. For Tracy, it is Evie (co-screenwriter Nikki Reed), who seems to have everything she desires. So when Evie introduces her to drugs (taking them and selling them), shoplifting, body-piercing, lying, and sex, it seems a small price to pay for feeling accepted or, to use a word that is only used about teenagers or celebrities, "popular."
This film has great strengths -- particularly its authenticity of detail and its genuine commitment, even tenderness, toward its subject matter. This really shows in the performances. Hunter is fearless in revealing Mel's fragility, her generosity, and the deep, deep love for her children that grounds her. Wood is breathtakingly open; every ounce of the joy and anguish she feels in heart-breaking relief on her face. Wood shows us Evie's wounded child inside the cool manipulator. The script has some particularly subtle and perceptive moments, especially when Tracy's father keeps asking for the problem to be explained to him "in a nutshell."
On the other hand, it would be nice if Tracy didn't have to take on every single one of every parent's worst nightmares; in addition to substance abuse, sexual involvement, lying, stealing, and failing in school, she develops an eating disorder and cuts herself. There are enough teenage problems in this movie to fill a decade's worth of after-school-specials. But the film's weaknesses are the weaknesses of youth and inexperience, and that is actually very appropriate for the subject matter.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how easy it was for Tracy to slip away from everything she had learned. Why was Evie's friendship so important to her? Why was Tracy important to Evie?
Why was it so hard for Mel to say "no" to anyone?
If you decide to watch this movie with your teen, be prepared for frank discussions afterward.
MPAA explanation:
drug use, self-destructive violence, language and sexuality
Last updated:
September 2, 2024
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