Thirteen is the age when "family movie" stops being a useful category. A thirteen-year-old can handle real ambiguity, unhappy middles and characters who are wrong about things β and will notice immediately if a film is pitched at their younger sibling. Everything here respects that, and most of it is PG rather than PG-13.
The Princess Bride (1987, PG)
A grandfather reads his sick grandson a story with pirates, sword fights and true love in it. The framing device is the whole trick β it lets the film be sincere and funny at the same time, which is precisely the register a thirteen-year-old is negotiating. Endlessly quotable, which helps.
Where to stream The Princess Bride β
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023, PG)
The rare blockbuster that trusts its audience with an unresolved ending and a hero who is right when every adult in the film says he is wrong. Visually it is doing things nothing else is doing.
Where to stream Across the Spider-Verse β
Hidden Figures (2016, PG)
Three Black women mathematicians at NASA in 1961. It is a crowd-pleaser and makes no apology for that, but the segregation is not softened, and thirteen is old enough to hold both β the triumph and what it cost.
Where to stream Hidden Figures β
Turning Red (2022, PG)
Often written off as a younger film because it is animated. It is not β it is about a girl deciding her mother does not get to define her, which reads very differently at thirteen than at ten.
Where to stream Turning Red β
Bend It Like Beckham (2002, PG-13)
Jess wants to play soccer; her Punjabi parents want her to learn to cook a full Indian dinner. Funny and warm about a genuinely hard conflict, and it never makes either side the villain.
Where to stream Bend It Like Beckham β
ParaNorman (2012, PG)
A boy who sees ghosts has to stop a witchβs curse, and discovers the townβs version of events has been wrong for three hundred years. Much sadder and angrier than the marketing suggested β it is really about mob cruelty toward anyone different.
Where to stream ParaNorman β
Back to the Future (1985, PG)
Still the best-constructed comedy script most teenagers will ever see, and a useful one to watch with a parent who can point out how every joke in the first twenty minutes pays off later. The 1955 material has aged in places; that is worth talking about rather than skipping.
Where to stream Back to the Future β
Whale Rider (2003, PG-13)
A MΔori girl is the natural heir to a chieftainship that only passes to boys. Quiet, unsentimental and genuinely moving, with one of the great performances by a young actor.
Where to stream Whale Rider β
Nimona (2023, PG)
A disgraced knight teams up with a shapeshifter who may or may not be a monster. Sharp, fast, and openly about being told what you are by people who have not asked. Based on the graphic novel, which is worth having on the shelf too.
School of Rock (2003, PG-13)
Lower stakes than the rest of this list and useful for exactly that reason β a film everyone in the house will actually agree to.
Where to stream School of Rock β
When PG-13 is the right call
Most thirteen-year-olds are ready for some PG-13, and the rating is a blunt instrument β it can mean one strong word or sustained violence. The three PG-13 films above are rated for language and thematic weight, not gore. If you want to check anything specific before pressing play, the individual film pages in our catalog carry the details.
Keep browsing
Every title above has a page in our movie catalog with current streaming links, and there is a matching list of tween TV shows if you want something with more episodes in it. On the reading side, our guides cover mystery, fantasy, graphic novels and reluctant readers.