Impotent parents

IN the Aug. 17 Calendar section, I came across the full-page ad for the movie “Thirteen.” The closer I looked, the more disturbing the image became.

The Entertainment Weekly reviewer speaks of a “loving mom who helplessly watches her daughter’s descent.” The message being, I gather, that a parent is impotent in their duties once a child reaches that towering summit of age 13.

At the bottom of the page was the obligatory little box for the rating. The movie is rated R for “drug use, self-destructive violence, language and sexuality, all involving young teens.” So let me get this straight: The movie is about 13-year-olds, but 13-year-olds cannot see it. So the target audience is adults who want to see self-destructive, violent young teens using drugs and having sex. Now there’s a crowd I want to sit in a dark room with for a couple of hours.

Tom Morgan

Silverado