Thirteen
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: August 20, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
70
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
27
Mixed:
10
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
PremiereBrooke Hauser
The result is a disturbing look into the so-called Wonder Years of adolescence, with convincing, award-worthy performances from each of its key players: Hunter, Wood, and Reed. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
With an authenticity that is tender and merciless, the movie shows you what it looks like when youth rebellion becomes a form of fascism. Read full review
100
USA TodayMike Clark
The most powerful of all recent wayward-youth sagas; indeed, it's tough to recall the last such drama that packed as much emotional clout. Read full review
91
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
Despite the raw gut-punch of its direction, its power lies in compassion, not sensationalism. Read full review
90
Washington PostDesson Thomson
It feels like real life unfolding before your eyes. Read full review
90
The New YorkerDavid Denby
This movie is an emotionally coherent work--a burning experience of desperation and fleeting exhilaration. [1 September 2003, p. 130]
89
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Just plain unforgettable. Read full review
88
New York PostMegan Lehmann
Despite its shock value, Thirteen rises above dysfunctional-family-drama cliches, thanks to the truthfulness of its script and the keen eye of a sympathetic director. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
A smart movie that does not simplify or candy-coat the rigors of the teenage years. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Who is this movie for? Not for most 13-year-olds, that's for sure. The R rating is richly deserved, no matter how much of a lark the poster promises. Maybe the film is simply for those who admire fine, focused acting and writing. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
An excellent, unforgettable film. Read full review
88
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
One of the most honest and harrowing depictions of female adolescence ever put to film. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Unlike most other teen cautionary tales, Thirteen does not accuse merely one villain for the corruption of a minor. Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Despite Hunter's terrific acting, the mom seems too unaware. Read full review
80
Washington PostStephen Hunter
The creation of teen-girl culture seems almost pitch-perfect. The flaw is the flaw of most works of muckraking when they are held to artistic standards: It's a question of proportion. Read full review
80
Dallas ObserverGregory Weinkauf
What could have become a heinous TV movie instead delivers the moving and relatable experience of being an emotionally overburdened person stuck in a world that mostly sucks. Read full review
80
EmpireJoe Berry
Hunter is superb as the alcoholic mom trying to keep her life from falling apart, and Wood and Reed are scarily convincing as delinquents. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Wood is superb at delineating Tracy's slide into desperate incoherence, but equally impressive is Reed, who has to conceal her writer's intelligence in playing a character who's entirely instinctive and unreflective. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Would it be rude to suggest that your time might be better spent with your own children? Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Brace yourself for Thirteen -- it'll cause a commotion. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
A movie that is often as awkward and as filled with mixed impulses as the age it documents. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Sometimes the film feels as if it's trying too hard to include every possible horror a teenager could sample. Read full review
70
SlateDavid Edelstein
Thirteen has a way of smashing through your defenses. Hardwicke has goosed up the old melodramatic formula with a neorealist syntax and up-to-the-minute cultural nuances and violence. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesManohla Dargis
Isn't in league with the Nicholas Ray classic ("Rebel Without a Cause"), but in its ferocious energy and lead performances it's many cuts above most big-screen soap operas. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
The film is not without its share of awkward moments, but as an insightful critique of "Girl Culture" and the mounting war over the hearts and minds of adolescent girls that's currently being waged in the media, it's mandatory viewing. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
They often seem more bent on titillating or harrowing us than on helping us understand the characters. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDuane Byrge
An engaging, sympathetic portrait of junior high girls who have grown up too fast and way too little. Without being preachy, it's also a cogent, terrifying tale of the lack of supervision many teens face and the utter inability of many parents to not only raise kids but also to direct their own lives. Read full review
60
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Deliberately unvarnished shock piece designed to give pause to anyone with a daughter approaching teenhood. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Walks a fine line between bold indie film, with the attendant in-your-face roughness, and sodden Lifetime Original Movie. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Though thirteen too often mistakes hard realism for overheated spectacle, the heightened drama brings out the best in Wood and Hunter, who turn their climactic scene into an actors' workshop, charged with raw emotion. As the film barrels toward the outrageously histrionic, they nearly pull it back from the brink. Read full review
50
SalonStephanie Zacharek
If you boil Thirteen down to its flimsy bones, you'll find that it's not really so much about peer pressure in contemporary teen life as it is a story about a classic bad egg. That right there dilutes its highfalutin aspirations. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
Thirteen doesn't really offer much more insight into exasperated mother-daughter relationships or twisted teens than, say, "Freaky Friday," which I much prefer. At least that film was funny and didn't try to fob itself off as a bulletin from the front lines. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Ms. Wood's performance bounces with mood swings from anxiety to exhilaration in a movie with moments so realistically painted that your eyes will sting from the fumes. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyErnest Hardy
More than once, while watching the film, I thought: The camera should really just turn away from those grating teen brats and follow the mom (Holly Hunter). Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The movie doesn't complete itself, in the sense of filling in our knowledge of its people (who are more like passengers). It simply comes to a stop. Read full review
40
Village VoiceLaura Sinagra
Catherine Hardwicke's directorial debut is less a damozel-in-distress fetish flick than a bird-flipping plunge into coded girl-cult communication. Read full review
40
Film ThreatJim Agnew
This isn't a new spin on Bret Easton Ellis, it's more like a 90-minute "Saved By The Bell" episode with better music. Read full review
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