Thirteen

How many drugs must a young girl take before you can call her a teen? And how many boys must said young teen blow before her single mom breaks? This musical question is hysterically answered in the well-acted but overwrought Thirteen. Written by an actual 13-year-old, as if that were a good thing, Thirteen tells the story of a good girl gone bad. It’s very Go Ask Alice or ABC Afterschool Special but with more BJs and bare midriffs. Titillating, I suppose, but just shy of art. Still, it’s a work that shows promise, and there may be good things to come from first-time director Catherine Hardwicke and co-writer Nikki Reed, as long as they don’t succumb to Hollywooditis and start churning out sequels like Thirteen II: Fourteen!