Stop giving me reasons to never have a daughter.

There was a time when I was actually excited to have kids, specifically a daughter. Looking at that idea now I think that is possibly the worst idea I have ever had.. and that is saying a LOT. Way back in the day a friend of mine loaned me a movie called teenagers are stupid and should not be allowed outside Thirteen.

The set up for the movie is fantastic, I recommend people watch it just for the beginning because of how well it is done. It is realistic, honest and shines through as more of a home movie than a Hollywood film. In the introduction of the movie you are introduced to the main character Tracy who is a 13 year old straight-A student who lives with her mom, a recovering drug user and struggling hair dresser.

Then the movie actually starts and things go downhill. Swiftly.

For the sake of acceptance this straight-A mother loving girl spirals into drugs, crime, 'sex' and isolationism. She follows around the popular girl at school, gets into all kinds of trouble and shenanigans and things continuously go from bad to worse in every situation. They steal stuff, get body piercings and attempt to have sex with a 20 year old life guard. The movie eventually dissolves in a touch and go story of her life falling apart and she isolates herself from those who love her because she does not think they care.

I tried really hard to give a damn about the movie, and there were a few times when I thought I could. Too many times the movie overshot what it originally was going for, which constantly squashed any actual feelings it was invoking.

It did catch me off guard several times and there are parts when people can be hit rather hard and unexpectedly because you find yourself suddenly faced with a situation you can relate to more than you would like to admit. Common things that everyone knows happens to teenagers, but nobody really talks about, and it feels strange to be faced with something so blatantly; want for acceptance, isolationism, etc.

On saying that, though, I feel it necessary to point out that this movie was not remotely fun to watch, only my incredible willpower kept me in my seat. I was 13 at one point in life, and I never got into this kind of trouble. I was a reckless, enthusiastic, chain-smoking, fight-picking teenager, but the level of trouble she gets in, in the amount of time, is just silly. There is no way she would go from the straight-A she was to the drug-loving 'skank' she became.

This would have made more sense if the movie was set when the main character was more susceptible to these things, such as a 16 year old in high school, not a 13 year old straight-A girl in public school. It just was not remotely believable when you compared the characters to the plot they were actually aiming for.

Overall, I felt as if this movie not only gave me yet another reason to not have a daughter, but also totally raped my mind with the senselessness of visuals the movie flashed at my unsuspecting eyes. It tries to be gritty and realistic, it comes across as tasteless and crude, aiming for the simple value of shock and even failing at that. The tag line for the movie is 'It's happening so fast' but while watching it I just simply wished it went faster so I could do something more productive:

masturbating with sandpaper comes to mind.

Overall Rating :)

Thing 1
-Groove Sucka Groove