I'll Show You an Alarming Look At a Teenager

Friday night, Roomie and I went to see Thirteen at the Wallace Theaters (indie films only). It was a mutal agreement that we wanted THIS movie. After I vented some of the anger the movie caused me, I took time to reflect on it.

The movie is about a girl going into 7th grade. She is not ugly or anything, but is a little unpopular and is of course having all sorts of teenage angst. This angst is probably accentuated by the fact her divorced mom is dating a coke head and they and the girl's brother barely get by and the dad is just too busy to see his kids or take them on his weekends. She starts hanging out with this really popular girl and enters into a life of theft, sex, drugs (hardcore), rebellion, and moderate prostitution. All of this when she is in the 7th grade. Eventually, it gets so bad she is held back in the 7th grade and her mom finds all of her stuff because she has been semi-oblivious throughout this whole spiral.

I won't spoil the ending in case you want to see it because, despite the far-fetchedness of it all, it is a good movie. I say far fetched because I didn't know about most of this stuff until I was a freshman or sophomore in high-school. I knew some people who were never teenagers and virgins at the same time, but never this out of control in any manner. Rooie also never encountered people like this and she grew up in the city the movie takes place. There are a lot of reviews which call this movie an "alarming but realistic view into today's teenager's life". BULLSHIT! Speaking as a teenager today, I would like to point out I never crushed up perscription pill and snorted them through a straw or sold weed in the park, especially in the 7th grade.

On that note, I would like to mention that I did notice prior to the movie a large group of 12 or 13 year olds getting on the bus dressed in clothes I wouldn't be caught at a club in for the sake of being skanky giving the bus driver an attitude.

I'll leave it at that. I highly recommend this movie, but it might make you a little angry. It made me angry.