Havoc (2005)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

Barbara Kopple

Writers (WGA):

Stephen Gaghan (story) and
Jessica Kaplan (story) ...

Release Date:

16 October 2005 (Armenia)

Genre:

Crime | Romance

Tagline:

Some lines aren't meant to be crossed...

Plot:

Two affluent suburban girls who clash with the Latino gang culture of East LA.

Plot Keywords:

Gang | Latino | Drug Dealer | Teenager | Drugs

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Anne Hathaway	...	Allison Lang
Bijou Phillips	...	Emily
Shiri Appleby	...	Amanda
Michael Biehn	...	Stuart Lang
Joseph Gordon-Levitt	...	Sam
Matt O'Leary	...	Eric
Freddy Rodríguez	...	Hector
Laura San Giacomo	...	Joanna Lang
Mike Vogel	...	Toby
Raymond Cruz	...	Chino
Alexis Dziena	...	Sasha
Channing Tatum	...	Nick
Jose L. Vasquez	...	Manuel (as Johnny Vasquez)
Luis Robledo	...	Ace
Sam Hennings	...	Mr. Rubin

MPAA:

Rated R for strong sexual content, nudity, pervasive language, violence, drug and alcohol use - all involving teens.

Runtime:

85 min | 93 min (unrated version)

Country:

USA | Germany

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Singapore:R21 | Iceland:16 | Finland:K-15 | USA:Unrated (unrated DVD version) | Malaysia:(Banned) | Germany:16 | Singapore:M18 (edited version) | USA:R (certificate #41248) | Australia:MA | Portugal:M/16 | Argentina:13 | Italy:VM18 | Peru:18 | UK:18 | Italy:VM14 (re-rating) (2008)

Filming Locations:

Altadena, California, USA

Company:

Media 8 Entertainment

Trivia:

The song that Allison sings at the high school party is "How Do You Want It?" by Tupac Shakur

Goofs:

Continuity: When Allison is asking the boy shooting the film if he wants to sleep with her and begins seducing him, her pants go from buttoned to unbuttoned and back again.

Quotes:

Allison: We're teenagers and we're bored.

Movie Connections:

References "Punk'd" (2003)

Soundtrack:

That's My Shit

A middle view

It seems that this is one of those films that people either love or hate. I'm more in the middle. At times I found Havoc annoying, but as it progressed, the story became more engaging, and you're supposed to find aspects of it annoying.

Anne Hathaway--who is trying her hardest here to distance herself from her previous Disney and family film image by choosing a role where she's naked and sexual as often as possible--plays Allison, a rich, enigmatic high school student, wrapped up with a very plastic wannabe-gangsta-rapper group of white kids. They have a minor encounter with a Mexican gang in East L.A., and Hathaway finds herself (somewhat) inexplicably drawn to the Mexican gang. She keeps returning to visit one of the leaders, Hector (Freddy Rodriguez). At one point things become more complicated, as the audience surely expects.

The annoying aspect of the film is the rich kid gangsta posers. They seem incredibly fake, stupid and ridiculous. But on the other hand, that's pretty much the point. Los Angeles certainly has a reputation, somewhat deserved, for plasticity, so I suppose that Los Angeles high schools would be even worse, because a large percentage of high school students everywhere tend to conform to some clique or another (as do many adults, for that matter, but the "join a club to fit in and be accepted" mentality is usually more transparent and focused in high school). So the main characters should be annoying, and Allison, and later her friend Emily (Bijou Phillips), should be frustrating in their lack of direction and independent identity.

The problem with Havoc, however, is that the bulk of the running time is given to this irksome, frustrating and ridiculous group of characters. That's not exactly a recipe for falling in love with a film. Both Allison and the audience will likely respond to the Mexican gang better because there is an air of authenticity present with them, thanks largely to the cast playing those roles, but they're just not in the film enough, and the climax and dénouement are far less than satisfactory in that regard. Likewise, one rich kid character who is making an amateur documentary on the rich kid "gang" comes across as more authentic and interesting, but he ends up having an inexcusably minor role.

Still, if you can bear the inundation of poser behavior and lingo, there is an interesting story somewhat buried here, plus some attractive cinematography, a good soundtrack (both the songs and the more traditional score), and I'm certainly not complaining about seeing, um, more of Anne Hathaway. Approach this one with a lot of caution, but it's easy to see how it could be a gem for some.