The script is as overexcited as the girls themselves, and its affirmative ending is unearned.

| Apr 10, 2018

It is here that the performances pay emotional dividends. The sight of Hunter kissing her daughter's self-inflicted scars as if trying to kiss away the psychological pain that raised them will haunt me for some time.

| Jan 11, 2018

Explicit peer pressure story for older teens.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 29, 2010

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 1, 2006

A rather basic tale about the perils of going along with the in-crowd and the extremes to which teenagers will act out for attention.

| Original Score: B- | May 4, 2005

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 24, 2004

Hardwicke shows great instincts, using a frenetic documentary style to hammer home the brutal realities of modern teenage life, but rooting it in an unusually sensitive portrait of mother and daughter.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 25, 2003

Hunter and Reed are excellent, but it's the scarily talented 15-year-old Wood whose scorching, star-making performance drives Thirteen.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 25, 2003

Although it borders on exploitation in several places, Thirteen packs an emotional wallop.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 12, 2003

It's a pretentious piece of Valley Girl vileness masquerading as social commentary.

| Sep 11, 2003

And just as it did with Kids, the media will (and already has) trumpet warnings from the mountaintops that the film should be taken as a wake-up call to parents.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 5, 2003

Thirteen, a disturbing look at rebellious teens, is galvanized by emotional extremes and wrenching performances. But this gritty indie film also presumes a profundity that its edgy shocks and drama-queen histrionics don't deliver.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Sep 5, 2003

Thirteen is something of a cross between the sincere if heavily varnished family drama Once and Again and in-your-face teenage movies like Larry Clark's Kids, the stuff of which parental nightmares are made.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 5, 2003

This piercingly strong movie puts the 'hell' in the Hello Kitty generation.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Sep 5, 2003

[A] jarring and beautiful movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 5, 2003

Gritty indie After School Special.

Full Review | Sep 5, 2003

Burns with emotional truth.

| Original Score: A- | Sep 4, 2003

May be the most emotionally wrenching film some parents will ever watch.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 31, 2003

It feels like real life unfolding before your eyes.

Full Review | Aug 29, 2003

The creation of teen-girl culture seems almost pitch-perfect.

Full Review | Aug 29, 2003