Although this film got some of the best reviews I've read in a long time, I had mixed feelings about it. Evan Rachel Wood plays Tracy, a serious, studious middle-schooler, who longs to hang with the cool crowd, particularly Evie Zamora (Nikki Reed). When the opportunity to do so arises, she jumps at it, and quickly turns into an out-of-control, foul-mouthed, argumentative tart. Things go from bad to worse when Evie worms her way into Tracy's household. Rated "R" for drug use, sexual situations and dialog, and self-inflicted violence involving young teens.

Tracy...........Evan Rachel Wood
Evie............Nikki Reed
Mel.............Holly Hunter (The Piano, Broadcast News)
Brooke..........Deborah Kara Unger
Brady...........Jeremy Sisto (Brenda's brother in Six Feet Under)

Also, look for Sarah Clarke (24) in a small role (not as a terrorist.)
Directed by Catherine Hardwicke; written by Hardwicke and Reed.

Nikki Reed has said in interviews that the character of Tracy was based on her, and indeed she originally wanted to play Tracy. However, I assume that Hardwicke wanted a more accomplished actress for such a pivotal role. Doubtless, Evan Rachel Wood got the part based on the strength of her performance as Jessie Sammler during Once & Again's three-year run.
The performances, particularly Ms. Wood and Ms. Hunter as her clueless and befuddled mom, are outstanding. However, the look of the film can be somewhat annoying. Shot in 26 days, on digital video, the look can be jarring. The hand-held camera frequently becomes jumpy, and toward the end, the color almost fades away entirely. In one scene, the camera shoots the room at a severe angle, reminiscent of the way they filmed the villians' hideouts on the Batman TV series. If seeing this film makes us aware of the need to keep an eye on our kids, though, then it's done its job.

Spoiler Alert: Actually, what I'm saying here has already been said in the reviews, so I don't think I'm giving away too much here. In ever escalating acts of pain and self-destruction (including a do-it-yourself navel piercing,) Tracy begins to cut her arms and wrists. She eventually finds a blade and a double-edged razor. My nitpick here is that the blade accompanying the razor is a single edged one. Also, it's not used for shaving, but for scraping excess paint, caulk and the like.

Actually it as not shot on digital video. It was shot on 16mm film. 500 ASA film to be exact. The higher the ASA number the more grain the film will have but the less light you need to get exposure. To give you an idea about what 500 ASA means for my Film II project this semester I will be shooting on 400 ASA film for a short that is almost all night shots. For my film I project we used 50 ASA film since we shot outside.

Thirteen did go though a digital intermediate (sp) process where it was digitally blown up to 35mm film for release but you wouldn't have seen many artifacts from that since DI results in less grain than an optical blowup.

Nineteen year old Evan Rachel Wood is now involved with thirty-eight year old Marilyn Manson (who I thought was now irrelevant.) Manson's wife (Mrs. Marilyn Manson? ) has filed for divorce over this. More skinny on this most important news story (well, it's more important than the Rosie O'Donnell - Donald Trump feud, isn't it?) here.