Thirteen (2003) – 5.5

Ultimately an unsuccessful effort, but is nearly redeemed by some truly impressive performances.  Rachel Evan Wood is astonishingly good as Tracy, a sweet but impressionable thirteen-year-old who strikes up a dangerous friendship with bad-girl Evie (Nikki Reed, who also co-wrote the script).  Holly Hunter plays Melanie, Tracy’s loving but inept mother, who can only look on with horror as her daughter becomes a monster.  The film displays an admirable sympathy for even its most blameworthy characters, but it rushes through key points with the frenzy of an overly ambitious afterschool special and eventually undermines its credibility by fucking up Tracy just a bit too much.  The world must really be going to shit if it’s this easy for thirteen-year-olds to lie, cheat, steal, take drugs, self-mutilate, and engage in promiscuous sex.