THIRTEEN

½ (three and one half stars)

Girls gone wild.

Running time: 100 minutes. Rated R (drug use, self-destructive violence, language and sexuality – all involving young teens). At the Sunshine and the Clearview 62nd and Broadway.

‘THIRTEEN,” an incendiary indie about the havoc wrought by peer pressure, checks off a laundry list of teenage misbehavior: drug abuse, oral sex with older boyfriends, cursing, shoplifting and self-mutilation.

It’s shocking, yes, but skirts charges of sensationalism by employing a sincere and empathetic tone, largely due to the fact that the semi-autobiographical script was co-written by then-13-year-old Nikki Reed.

Reed also makes a startling acting debut as Evie, a sassy, promiscuous, multi-pierced seventh-grader who applies her makeup with a trowel.

Parents will view Evie as a nightmare in thong-baring low-riders, but to Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood), she’s the epitome of seductive cool.

When we first meet Tracy, she’s well-mannered, writes poetry and studies hard – in other words, in the eyes of the in crowd, she’s a geek.

Determined to overhaul her image, she throws out her stuffed animals and starts in on her wardrobe.

Clad in the tween uniform of ultra low-rise jeans, belly-baring tops and piercings, she finally attracts the attention of Evie, who gleefully ushers Tracy down the slippery slope to delinquency.

Tracy’s rebellion is partly fueled by a desire to hurt her mother, Melanie, whose co-dependent relationship with a former junkie (Jeremy Sisto) is a point of contention.

Holly Hunter gives a stinging performance as Tracy’s single mom, a recovering alcoholic who runs a hairdressing business from her home and struggles to discipline her wild daughter without alienating her completely.

Hunter and Reed are excellent, but it’s the scarily talented 15-year-old Wood whose scorching, star-making performance drives “Thirteen.”

She is by turns preening, confused, hysterical and achingly young – and she takes us down with her as she self-destructs slowly.

From cursing at her mom and piercing her navel, she moves on to cutting herself with scissors, snorting cocaine and attempting to seduce her twentysomething next-door neighbor (Kip Pardue) into a threesome with her and Evie.

Meanwhile, the manipulative and motherless Evie is playing Tracy off her increasingly distraught mom.

Director Catherine Hardwicke, who co-wrote the script with Reed, uses a modest budget to great effect: Jumpy camerawork and frenetic cuts mimic the hyperactive blur of teen existence.

“Thirteen,” which won a directing prize for Hardwicke at Sundance earlier this year, rises above dysfunctional-family-drama clichés thanks to the truthfulness of its script and the keen eye of a sympathetic director.