13 in CA

I had to blog about yesterday's screening in class of Thirteen.  I remember seeing the cover for this film at Blockbuster, and renting it in secret.  I had never before seen a film that captured the raw and rivetting growing up of girls.  Being exposed to Now & Then, I thought it was all about sisterhood and seances.  While it may be about those elements as well, the more twisted, realistic, and complex situations dealt with by the coming of age girls in this film was far more eye-opening.

Director Catherine Hardwicke’s delivery of Nikki Reed’s rigid and all too real adjustment to her teenage years exposes sensitive subject matter in a Neo-Realistic fashion.  Written pre-dominantly by Reed, she also stars in the film as the girl who was responsible for spiraling her own (real) life out of control, school “hottie”: Evie Zamora.  The autobiographical documentary creates an edgy perspective of what it meant to be thirteen years old in California in the late 90’s.  It follows what was Reed’s real life nightmare, as she transforms from “Mommy’s gal” to middle school “skank” in her jarring thrust into dysfunctional adolescence, fueled by the manipulative “Zamora.”

            For all of you film gurus, neo-realism is loosely defined as stressing loose episodic plots, unextraordinary events and characters, natural lighting, actual location settings, nonprofessional actors, a preoccupation with poverty and social problems, and an emphasis on humanistic and democratic ideas. Elements of neo-realism structure this debut film of Reed’s, and appeals to the audience's consciousness.  It provides a social commentary on girls today and how they are catapulted into freakishly real scenarios that revolve around careless drug use and promiscuous sex at young ages.

            The very first line, spoken by “Tracy” (Evan Rachel Wood’s character portrayal of her opposing lead, Nikki Reed) is: “Hit me. I'm serious; I can't feel anything, hit me! Again, do it harder! I can't feel anything, this is awesome!” Opening with a harsh drug abuse and physical fighting scene, the film sets up the characters as reckless and void of any feeling, both literally, as a result of the whipped cream can they’re huffing, and metaphorically as it represents the emotional lack of substance the girls have acquired.  Executing the neo-realistic filming and directing style, Hardwicke enhances the feeling of the “high” with blurred shots and shaky subjective angles.  The entire film uses a hand held camera, which compliments the reality and confusion of its content. This in particular is useful as it perfectly illuminates the effect of the drug (huffing the whipping cream can) on the girls and paints a real picture for the audience of the seriousness of the situation for the girls who obviously look to be around 13.

            In its entirety, the film succeeds in its attempt to suspend reality and expose the audience to a harsh lifestyle of a young, once “innocent,” girl.  Though at times seemingly redundant, this film, clearly written by a young adolescent, conveys its dominating theme—that no matter what, love is healing.  Holly Hunter, who plays the mother, manages to miss all of the blaringly obvious signs that her daughter is out of control, and acts more like a teenager herself than her daughter.  Reed captures this relevant mother-daughter relationship and it hits home with anyone who has had their share of family dysfunction. 

            The film concludes with the mother, a person that Tracy has estranged herself from almost to the point of no return, providing that maternal safety net that catches Tracy as she hits rock bottom.  This individual scene, as she has a breakdown on the kitchen floor, occurs as a result of Tracy finally seeing the true light shed on her seemingly best friend Evie.  She is able to grasp that the girl she had morphed into was a direct result of the selfish desires of Evie, which were oblivious to the audience members and everyone else in the film except for the person it mattered to—Tracy.  Evie merely wanted to have her own real life Barbie doll that would idolize her and carry out her brain washed ideas.  Literally crumbling before the camera, Wood delivers a stunningly raw performance that shreds your every emotion as you empathize with her struggle to “fit in the cool crowd” and growing up in general. The camera captures Hunter and Wood and doesn’t cut for an entire two minutes as the mother and daughter in the movie embrace and sob uncontrollably, breaking down and realizing that it’s going to be fine all at the same time, the resolution of the film.  The lack of cutting the film to close up on the actors influences the reality of the moment as we are able to absorb these actors as a whole, their body language speaking volumes.  A realistic look at girlhood in America, Thirteen discloses some of the challenges and hardships society ignores our young girls face.