Thirteen Information

Thirteen is a 2003 American drama film directed by Catherine Hardwicke, and written by Hardwicke and Nikki Reed, the film's co-star. The film also stars Holly Hunter and Evan Rachel Wood. It is a semi-autobiographical film inspired by Reed's life at age 12 and 13 with Wood's character "Tracy" being loosely based upon Reed. The script was written in six days and was originally meant to be a comedy. The film caused controversy upon its release, because it dealt with topics such as drug and alcohol abuse, underage sexual behavior and self-harm.

Plot

Thirteen-year-old Tracy Freeland (Evan Rachel Wood) writes poetry and is an honor student at Portola Middle School in Los Angeles. Her divorced mother Melanie (Holly Hunter) is a recovering alcoholic and high school dropout who struggles as a hairdresser to support Tracy and older brother Mason (Brady Corbet). At school Tracy is teased by some girls about her "cabbage patch" clothes. Tracy then endeavours to shed her 'little girl' image and pleads with her mother to purchase a trendier style of clothing. Melanie buys Tracy new clothes from a discount vendor in a parked van.

Tracy is then invited by Evie Zamora (Nikki Reed), one of the most popular girls at school, to go shopping on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Although Evie gives her a disconnected telephone number as a joke, Tracy takes a city bus to Melrose Avenue anyway, where she finds Evie and a friend at an edgy thrift shop. At the store, Tracy sees Evie and her friend continuously shoplifting. Tracy begins to feel uncomfortable, and walks by herself out of the store and sits on a bench outside. Once there, Tracy begins to truly feel the need to be popular. She then steals a distracted woman's pocketbook to be more like Evie. This impresses Evie and her friend and they all go on a shopping spree. After this incident, Tracy and Evie become best friends and Evie temporarily moves into the Freeland household.

Tracy, amongst other things, is angry about her parents' divorce and cuts herself as a way to cope with the stress. Tracy rapidly transforms into a new person as she neglects her old friends, becomes more impulsive, and cares less about her schoolwork. She taunts Melanie's boyfriend, Brady (Jeremy Sisto), who is also a recovering addict. Although Melanie is somewhat aware of what is happening with Tracy and Evie, she is unable to stop them.

Melanie is also reluctant to ask Evie to leave her household because of Evie's manipulative, yet likely truthful claims of an abusive childhood. As Tracy steadily shuts Melanie out of her life, Tracy and Evie become very close, even talking to each other in their own ludling language. However, after the early thrills, Tracy's new-found popularity does not make her happy. Although Tracy endeavors to emulate Evie's seductive behavior, this does not bring her pleasure. Tracy gets caught up in the so-called "romance" with a teenage boy Javi, but then later doubts he feels the same.

When Evie and Tracy try to seduce Luke (Kip Pardue), an adult lifeguard in his early twenties who is a friend of Mason, Tracy does not feel comfortable. Drawn at first into their kisses and allowing them to partially strip him, Luke throws them out of his house and soon moves away from the neighborhood.

One night in Hollywood, Mason and a friend make comments about the thong on a cute girl and is then shocked when the girl turns around and he realizes that it is his sister, with a belly ring. Tracy and Evie were at the movies with Melanie and Brady, but bolted to do other things. Later on, the girls take turns inhaling from a can of gas duster for computers and become so intoxicated that they laughingly hit each other, drawing blood. Meanwhile Melanie is unaware of how deeply the girls have fallen into petty crime, drug abuse, and oral sex with teenage boys. Seeing the harmful impact Evie is having on their lives, Melanie takes Evie back to live with her cousin Brooke (Deborah Kara Unger). Tracy seems to agree with this, after which Evie becomes upset and suddenly betrays Tracy at school. Melanie also hopes that Tracy will go live with her father, Travis, but she is unhappy at this thought. But, much to Tracy's dismay, Travis decides he wants to take custody of Mason instead, to give him a more stable environment away from Tracy.

After being informed she may fail seventh grade, Tracy comes home after school to find Evie, Brooke, and Melanie waiting for her. When the women confront Tracy about the girls' drug use and stealing, Tracy angrily blames Evie after she sees how Evie tries to blame it on her. Brooke, convinced by Evie, says Tracy was the bad influence and owing to this, they are moving to Ojai to get away from her. Melanie stands up for her daughter, saying Tracy was "playing with Barbies" before she met Evie.

Brooke pulls Tracy's sleeve up to show Melanie the many cuts and long scars on her daughter's left arm caused by her self-mutilation. Horrified, Melanie tells Brooke and Evie to leave. Both mother and daughter weep on the kitchen floor as Melanie kisses her daughter's heavily cut arm. Although Tracy tearfully pleads with Melanie to let go of her, Melanie holds on tight, and the two eventually fall asleep holding each other. The next morning Tracy wakes up with a fresh start and a new life.

The film ends with Tracy spinning alone on a park merry-go-round and she screams.

Cast

• Holly Hunter as Melanie Freeland
• Evan Rachel Wood as Tracy Freeland
• Nikki Reed as Evie Zamora
• Jeremy Sisto as Brady
• Brady Corbet as Mason Freeland
• D. W. Moffett as Travis Freeland
• Vanessa Hudgens as Noel
• Deborah Kara Unger as Brook LaLaine
• Kip Pardue as Luke
• Ulysses Estrada as Rafa
• Sarah Blakely-Cartwright as Medina
• Sarah Clarke as Birdie
• Jasmine Di Angelo as Kayla
• Tessa Ludwick as Yumi
• Cynthia Ettinger as Cynthia
• Charles Duckworth as Javi

Production

Director Catherine Hardwicke has called Nikki Reed a "surrogate daughter", having known her since she was 5 years old. The two began the screenplay as a comedy project which would be shot to video at minimal cost. The screenplay was written in 6 days and quickly shifted into a tale of early teen angst and self-destruction in Los Angeles, with Tracy's character drawn from Reed's own recent experiences as a pre and early teen. Hardwicke didn't think it would be fitting for Reed to play Tracy and auditioned hundreds of girls for the part.

After becoming aware of Evan Rachel Wood, Hardwicke came to believe she could make the film only with Wood in the role of Tracy and only that year, with Wood at that age.

Hardwicke has said Holly Hunter's agreement to play the role of Tracy's mother Melanie was a key boost to bringing the production together. About $2,000,000 was then raised, almost all through independent equity financing, a very low budget for any American film meant for general cinematic release in the early 21st century. Most of the adult actors were widely known and all of them reportedly agreed to low pay because they liked the script along with other members of the cast and crew. Wood and Reed were both 14 during filming (Wood turned 15 during the shoot). Most of the film was shot in 2002 in Los Angeles, California.

Their first audition together was at Hardwicke's house, which wound up as a slumber party that night. Auditions took place on a bed in Catherine Hardwicke's house, and when Hardwicke auditioned Wood, she had her get into her bed with Nikki Reed. The bed is also where Robert Pattinson kissed Kristen Stewart for the first time for their Twilight (which Reed costarred in and Hardwicke directed) screen test.The wardrobe worn by the girls was mostly their own. As filming progressed, the girls began dressing similarly without being asked to do so. Although the girls are seen smoking, the cigarettes were made mostly with catnip. The crushed pills they are shown snorting from the cover of a children's book were harmless dietary supplements.

During the belly piercing scene, the line in which Tracy asks "What the fuck did you do?" was not scripted but rather, Reed's thumb had slipped and she accidentally stabbed the top of Wood's belly button with the needle, from which she carried a scar. Although Reed's tongue piercing was real, Wood wore a costume version held onto her tongue by a small suction cup which was painful when taken off. Wood later said she swallowed a few during filming.

All of the scenes in which Tracy cuts herself were shot in a single day and Wood recalled running to her brother for emotional support between some takes. Wood later described the shooting of the scene in Luke's house as "awkward". The whole scene was rendered in a single, long and uncut take with Wood, Reed and Pardue, but was tightly choreographed with several crew members, social workers and parents also in the small room, carefully staying either hidden or behind the camera as it panned more than 200°, showing all four walls.

The movie was shot on lower cost super 16mm film. The camera was small, had a Panavision lens and was mostly hand-held by cinematographer Elliot Davis. This allowed shooting in very tight spots, such as in the bathroom. One tracking scene was shot with the camera mounted on a discarded shopping cart which the crew happened to find nearby.

More or less all of the scenes were filmed on location, with some on Hollywood Boulevard and at Venice Beach. The Freeland home scenes were shot at a rented house on Babcock Avenue in the San Fernando Valley. The many outdoor school scenes were shot at Portola Middle School in Tarzana, most of them on a single Saturday in searing heat. Many of the extras were students and a few were crew members.

Some scenes in the film were carefully and colorfully lit, while others were shot only with whatever daylight could be had. The shooting schedule was limited to less than a month and the underage actors could only work 9½ hours each day, closely watched by a paid social worker.

Taken altogether, this reportedly made for a frenetic production atmosphere which cast and crew later said matched the script and added to the film's fast and emotionally taut pace. The film stock was transferred to the digital domain wherein the colors and saturation were highly manipulated for some segments.

Thirteen was picked up by a major distributor only after production was completed. Because of the film's R rating in North America, the underage stars had to be accompanied by adults to see it at public showings.

Critical reception

Thirteen received positive reviews. The three leads, Wood, Hunter and Reed, were praised for their performances. The film is currently rated as 82% "Certified Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes.

Holly Hunter was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Both Hunter and Evan Rachel Wood were nominated for Golden Globes the same year, respectively for Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress in a Drama.

Soundtrack

The score was written by Mark Mothersbaugh. The soundtrack includes songs by Kinnie Starr and Carmen Rizzo, Liz Phair, Folk Implosion, Imperial Teen, Katy Rose, The Like, and MC 900 Ft. Jesus.