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
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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