Parents' Guide to

Thirteen

By Nell Minow, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 17+

Explicit peer pressure story for older teens.

Movie R 2003 100 minutes
Thirteen Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

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age 14+

Based on 20 parent reviews

Kid
Random Unicorn Adult
April 13, 2023
age 16+

Not for kids

This is a good movie to watch as a young adult or older teen. Its a message about growing up and things people go through. Definitely not for young impressionable children. I'm seeing so many children on tiktok trying to be like the main character Tracy who smokes, drinks, takes drugs, has sex and cuts herself onscreen, also constantly putting herself in very dangerous situations. I'm so glad i didn't find this movie when I was younger

This title has:

Too much sex
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
1 person found this helpful.
Mia S.
Mia S. Adult
March 7, 2023
age 11+

FROM A UK PERSPECTIVE

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.

This title has:

Great messages
Too much violence
Too much sex
Too much swearing
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
1 person found this helpful.
See all 20 parent reviews

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."

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (20):
Kids say (86):

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.

Movie Details

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