Tag: reviews

Tweenaged Wasteland: Thirteen (2003)

To quote Cecilia from The Virgin Suicides, “Clearly, doctor, you’ve never been a 13-year-old girl.”

Thirteen is not your average soft-colored, sweet, nostalgic coming-of-age story. It’s a raw, edgy, dark, and painfully real story about a 13-year-old.

The film Thirteen stars Evan Rachel Wood, is directed by Catherine Hardwicke, and co-written by Hardwicke and Nikki Reed, who plays the rebellious best friend Evie. It’s an autobiographical story about Reed’s experience as a thirteen-year-old, when she made a sudden transition from being a goody two-shoes to a rebel.  

The story follows a thirteen-year-old girl named Tracy who lives with her single mother, Melaine (played by Holly Hunter), and her brother, Mason (played by Brady Corbet).  She has a bit of a shaky home-life, which gets worse when her mother’s troublesome boyfriend reappears (played by Jeremy Sisto, who was in another Anatomy of a Doll film: May, go check out the post if you haven’t!)When Tracy befriends the rebellious popular girl in school, Evie (played by Nikki Reed), she starts going down a dark path and begins acting out.

Tracy’s relationship with her mother, Melanie, becomes more difficult throughout the film, and Melanie struggles to navigate how to parent Tracy through this difficult period. Tracy’s friendship with Evie becomes dark and toxic; they turn to drugs, alcohol, and lots of mischief. Tracy’s mental health simultaneously degrades slowly throughout the film as she battles with her mother and struggles to cope with her absent father.

The film is so many things: heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, stylish, and edgy. It brings a unique perspective of being told by someone who’s the same age as the characters. Because Reed is close to the story, she is able to paint a painfully raw image of one of the most difficult times in a girl’s life. 

The film strays from other coming-of-age stories that are more quirky and offbeat. It goes deep into a messy, realistic, and powerful true story. The ups and downs will make you laugh, cringe, and cry. 

The film is somewhat reminiscent of Kids (1995) written by Harmony Korine, and I think it is because both of these films were written and told through the lens of young people. When stories about youth are told from the perspectives of adults, they can sometimes become clouded by nostalgia. Sometimes, when you’ve had years of space and time to re-contextualize things, they become lighter, less important, and less serious. 

In the case of Thirteen, fourteen-year-old Nikki Reed was able to write about her life just a year or two after the events transpired. This is how the story is able to come off so gritty, dark, and heartbreaking, but is still able to remain grounded. It empathizes with every character, and it manages to put you in the exact headspace of Tracy, making it feel so heavy-hitting and impactful.

If you haven’t seen Thirteen, and you’re in the mood for something heavy, I’d definitely recommend giving it a watch. I love a good tweenaged film, so I want to ask you, what’s your favorite tween film? 

Till next time, dolls!

Lady Bird is the Whitewashed Version of Real Women Have Curves

I’m sure you’ve heard of Lady Bird (2017) directed by Greta Gerwig. But if you haven’t, I’ll give you a brief synopsis. Taking place in the early 2000’s, the film follows a teenage Christine (aka Lady Bird), played by Saoirse Ronan, as she navigates friendships, relationships, family, and self-identity in her final year of high school. 

Now, a film you may not have heard of is Real Women Have Curves (2002) directed by Patricia Cardoso. This film follows a girl named Ana (played by America Ferrera) as she navigates family, relationships, and self-identity during the summer after high school graduation.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love the film Lady Bird. This is not so much a critique of the film itself, but rather an examination of the similarities and differences between the two films and why one became much more successful than the other. 

The two films share common themes of teen girls coming of age in lower-income households,  awkward dating, and difficult/strained mother-daughter relationships. They also both end very similarly: the girl’s mother refusing to say goodbye to her when she leaves for university, then a shot of the main character walking down the streets of NYC in a corduroy blazer, beginning her next chapter. 

It’s hard to ignore the similarities once you see them, and it doesn’t help that Lady Bird had five Oscar nominations, while Real Women Have Curves had none.

Now lets look at what’s different between the films. Lady Bird follows a white family living in Sacramento. Christine (or Lady Bird) is a thin white teen girl navigating the epic highs and lows of high school. Now, Ana, on the other hand, is a curvy woman of colour who lives in East LA with an immigrant family from Mexico the summer after graduating. 

It’s difficult not to see how these differences may have something to do with the popularity of one film over the other. Lady Bird is also written and directed by Greta Gerwig, a white woman from Sacramento, while Real Women Have Curves is directed by Patricia Cardoso, a Colombian woman, and written by Josephina Lopez, a Mexican woman.

Another large theme that Real Women Have Curves focuses on is  (you guessed it) women’s bodies. There is a lot of talk about them in the film. Ana is a curvier woman, and some of the women she works with are as well. The film uses Ana’s mother, Carmen (amazingly played by Lupe Ontiveros), as the voice that constantly shames and critiques Ana and the others’ bodies.

However, Ana never dislikes her body; she’s proud of it, and she stands up to her mother over and over again, which I think is beautiful because we never see Ana feel ashamed of her body (refreshing!), and instead of watching a girl learn how to love herself, she already does. 

There is a beautiful moment towards the end of this film when all the women bond over the flaws of their bodies —not in a sad way—they are laughing and celebrating it, and it makes me cry every time. Now I wonder why something like this got ignored by film critics. Why, in the age of “body positivity,” is this film not praised more in mainstream media?

In a way, it feels as if Gerwig’s Lady Bird is the whitewashed version of Real Women Have Curves, made palatable for Hollywood. While I enjoy both films, I’d argue that Real Women Have Curves has more to say and has more heart. The story is heavily based on the writer Josephina Lopez’s life, while Gerwig said Lady Bird does not fully reflect her own upbringing. This is why (to me) it feels much more personal, with a deeper message.

Real Women Have Curves deserves its flowers, just as Lady Bird has received. While both are beautiful films, it upsets me that few people know about the former. I also think it’s important to note that in the coming-of-age genre in Hollywood, we see a lot about white stories, and because of that, a small fraction of people’s stories get told.

I urge you to continue broadening your horizons; watch foreign films, lesser-known films, stories made by women, and people of colour. These stories are powerful and beautiful and so important; we need to stop overlooking films that stray from the norm. I promise you, you will discover a beautiful world of cinema once you start!

So please, please, please. If you enjoyed Lady Bird, watch Real Women Have Curves. I’d love to hear what you think, and what similarities/differences you noticed.

Till next time, dolls!