Thirteen

Loosely structured and casually beautiful, this unassuming account of a year in the life of 13-year-old Virginia native Nina (Nina Dickens) and her mother, Lillian (Lillian Folley), looks like a documentary but isn't — not exactly. Painter-turned-filmmaker David D. Williams cast nonprofessionals — Lillian is Nina's adoptive mother, it was shot in their house — and encouraged them to improvise on situations that could have been drawn from their own experiences. It begins with Lillian telling two social workers about Nina's behavior over the last several weeks, starting with her 13th birthday party and leading up to her disappearance one ordinary after...