Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more

 

Going on 13 (2008)

Director: Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, Dawn Valadez

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Short Review - NY

**** (Four stars)
This thoughtful documentary by Kristy Guevara-Flanagan and Dawn Valadez invites you to step right back into the painfully awkward world of puberty and middle school. Just what you want, right? The film is excruciating at times, as it follows four racially diverse urban California girls from varied backgrounds over a period of three years, from fifth to seventh grade. Most of the wincing comes from familiar scenarios, like exclusion from playground cliques and name-calling, but some of the pain emanates from less usual tales. Young Rosie suffers anxiety thanks to an obese mother who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, while Esmerelda must rise daily at 3am to get a ride to class from her school-janitor father. Rest assured, it’s not all depressing. On the contrary, it is a rare and frequently inspiring close-up on girls who are at an age that is usually quite impenetrable to adults.—Beth Greenfield, Gay & Lesbian editor

[This is a TONY staff review, written for the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival. It is not considered an official review and should not be read as such. Please think of it as a casual impression from a movie-loving friend.] 

Author: 2008-04-30 00:45:45

Short Review - NY


  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, Dawn Valadez




Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.