Marya E. Gates Cool People Have Feelings, Too. (Substack) Feb 13, 2024

The film remains a searing time capsule of a place, and a timeless elegy for that messy period in girls’ lives that we’re all lucky if we make it out in one piece.

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Tom Meek Cambridge Day Oct 3, 2020 3.5/4

Given the room for platitude and cliche, the film's wholly genuine, gritty and from the heart.

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Kaleem Aftab The List Apr 17, 2019 4/5

Thirteen tries too hard to shock... but it is nonetheless a sensational look at the flip side of the American dream.

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Amy Taubin Film Comment Magazine Apr 10, 2018

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

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Neil Norman London Evening Standard Jan 11, 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.

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Nell Minow Common Sense Media Dec 29, 2010 4/5

Explicit peer pressure story for older teens.

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Felix Vasquez Jr. Cinema Crazed Apr 29, 2009

An excellent film with a great script, incredible acting, and a truly blunt cautionary tale...

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Joe Lozito Big Picture Big Sound Jul 14, 2007 3/4

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Betsy Bozdech DVDJournal.com Oct 29, 2006 4/4

No matter how much you've heard about the raw pain and reality of Catherine Hardwicke's debut drama Thirteen, it's still going to blow you away.

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Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Nov 1, 2005 A-

A horror tale about a subculture in which impressionable girls drift under group pressure into drugs, piercing, self-mutilation, anorexia and shoplifting

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Nick Schager Lessons of Darkness May 4, 2005 B-

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.

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Ethan Alter NYC Film Critic Mar 5, 2005 3/5

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Philip Martin Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Jan 29, 2005 A

a sober-sided Freaky Friday -- a chance to look through the eyes of a child

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Martin Scribbs Low IQ Canadian Jun 13, 2004

What power does a teenage girl have?

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Enrique Buchichio Uruguay Total May 30, 2004 3/5

Al menos una película se las arregla para decir que el "american way of life" (...) esconde terribles tragedias domésticas.

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Jay Richardson Future Movies UK May 15, 2004 8/10

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Jeffrey Chen Window to the Movies Feb 5, 2004 6/10

Can be admired for the truths it manages to expose, but it can't shake off the cheap feel of its horror movie tactics.

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James Verniere Boston Herald Feb 2, 2004 2.5/4

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Bill Chambers Film Freak Central Feb 1, 2004 1.5/4

Told with a hysteria usually reserved for sex-ed films

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Alex Sandell Juicy Cerebellum Jan 30, 2004 7/10

Teens aren't just manipulative tyrants. Only the teens in Thirteen are. Thanks to Catherine Hardwicke's direction, Thirteen moves at the pace of adolescence.

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