Metacritic Film

Thirteen

Starring Hermine Douglas, Alan Douglas, Anisa Dickens, and Dynisha Dickens

MPAA RATING: Not rated

Bellevue Films
Drama
87 minutes | Color
USA
Released In Theaters June 2, 2000

The quasi-documentary story of a year in the life of 13-year-old Virginia native Nina and her mother.

WRITTEN BY
David D. Williams

DIRECTED BY
David D. Williams

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

78 / 100

Critic Reviews

90 Chicago Reader
With the devout collaboration of the cast, Williams blurs the boundary between experience and storytelling as if the distinction were not only irrelevant but presumptuous.
90 Village Voice
The movie is as eloquently uninflected and filled with quirks as its star.
88 Chicago Sun-Times
One of the truest films I've seen about the ebb and flow of a real relationship.
80 The New York Times
For all its narrative glitches and its homemade quality, Thirteen evokes the rhythm, texture and tone of Nina's world in a way that a more carefully scripted film never could.
75 Chicago Tribune
The acting is amateurish at times, but always convincing.
63 New York Post
Watching Thirteen is like spending an hour and a half with a poker-faced teen who's obviously unhappy but refuses to talk about what's wrong.
60 TV Guide
This quietly gripping film is both universal and particular.

CLOSE THIS WINDOW

©2009 CNET Networks Inc. All rights reserved.