by MARK SLUTSKY

The cruel and terrifying world of the teenager is the subject of Thirteen, a new film by director Catherine Hardwicke. The cruel and terrifying world of the teenager isn't exactly a new subject for film - consider the works of Larry Clark and Todd Solondz - but what makes Thirteen stand out is that it tackles the subject from an entirely female point of view, and that it was co-written by a 13-year-old girl. This is Hardwicke's first feature, and she wrote the script with Nikki Reed, one of the movie's stars.

Evan Rachel Wood plays Tracy, who starts off as a pretty sweet kid, a 13-year-old raised by her cool hairdresser single mom, played very well by Holly Hunter. But you can tell she's envious of the cool girls, and when the opportunity arises to befriend "the hottest girl in school," (co-writer Reed), she dumps her old friends and goes for it, as kids tend to do. Reed is probably the best-drawn character in the picture - a troubled kid who seems to be able to charm her way out of anything. She soon leads Wood down the primrose path of temptation, with shoplifting, piercings, drugs, make-out parties and pretty much every other conceivable teen vice on the menu.

Wood soon gets into pretty rough shape. The movie does a very good job at sympathetically portraying the confusion and misguided rage of adolescence, with lots of good incidental details, as well as the effect it has on her mom, who's suddenly dealing with a monster. That said, Thirteen unfortunately does end up feeling a little too much like one of those movies you were forced to watch in Health class (remember Scott Baio in Stoned?). Before her corruption, Wood is a blonde, seemingly perfect, sensitive poetry scribbler, and as realistic as her transformation might be, it almost feels like the filmmakers are intoning, "America, this could be your child!" By the end, especially, the melodrama levels get amped pretty high, though thankfully nobody gets martyred. While there's a lot to like about Thirteen, it ultimately falls victim to its own preachiness.

Thirteen opens Friday, Sept. 19

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