Introducing...The Thirteen Fighting Temptations!

Watched two more rented movies on Saturday. Here's my view, as always:

First up was Thirteen. Basically, it's the story of a 13-year-old who goes from sweet and innocent to fast and slutty when she becomes friends with the most popular girl in school. You get to see such fun things as the girls stealing, smoking cigarettes & weed, drinking, getting high off canned air, making out with older guys, and some implied offscreen oral sex. Oh yeah, I should also mention that the innocent girl cuts herself when she's depressed. The movie was co-written by Nikki Reed (who was actually 13 years old when she did it) who also co-stars as the corruptor of the innocent girl. Holly Hunter plays the innocent girl's mother in a performance that got her an Oscar nomination (deservedly, I might add). The movie is shocking (if only because the girls aren't even out of high school) and fascinating as you see the life of preteen girls. My sister (who is 17) commented that the movie is pretty realistic, as she knows white girls who act very similar (minus a lot of the bad stuff, of course). So, if you enjoyed Kids or want to get inside the minds/lives of preteens, check this out.

The other movie I watched was The Fighting Temptations. This was a surprisingly good movie. Honestly, none of my family are big fans of Cuba Gooding, Jr., so we didn't necessarily expect to really enjoy the film. The music was good, and it was very funny at times. It's a little predictable, but it's definitely a feelgood film. I especially loved the jabs at elements of the Black Church. One of the characters, for example, is a "holier-than-thou" hypocrite that kept citing church bylaws and basically believed everything that was secular was bad. This tied into the theme of the film which was that although we aren't perfect, God will love us anyway. I highly recommend renting or even buying this film on DVD.