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"Too... Much...
Hotness... Can't...
Stop... Looking...
HELP!" |
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Directed by Barbara
Kopple - Written by
Stephen Gaghan
Starring Anne Hathaway,
Bijou Phillips, Shiri
Appleby & Freddy
Rodriguez
Distributed by New Line
& Media 8 - 2005 - 93m -
Unrated Version |
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Rich Suburban Wiggers Get a Reality Check... |
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"Yo listen up
homies. We be spreadin' some ill flava up in dis house, ya hear? We
street fo real yo!"
You have to laugh when you hear white people talking like that. It's
just so forced and awkwardly silly.
About twenty minutes into "Havoc", I thought that I might be watching
a film truly trying to empathize with these filthy rich white kids who
act like angels in front of their parents only to switch gears around
each other, drinking, doing drugs, screwing around and talking like a
gangsta rapper on crack.
Thankfully though, right around that twenty-first minute mark, this
film delivers one of the best scenes in recent years as the rich white
kids head to East Los Angeles to score some drugs from the lovely
Latino community.
What transpires is one of the great reality checks ever caught on
camera. The wigger facade gets a severe beat-down in the most
satisfying of ways.
Most people will have either seen or heard of "Havoc" because of the
infamous nude scenes involving our deliciously innocent and charming
Disney princess, Anne Hathaway. Well, they are there and they are
about as bold a diversion from typecasting as you could imagine. This
is a graphic film with some pretty explicit scenes. If you get to see
the unrated director's cut, you will be privy to Hathaway's talents in
ways that you would not have ever deemed possible after seeing "The
Princess Dairies" (spelling intended) or "Ella Enchanted".
You quite obviously get to see two new sides of Anne Hathaway in this
film... The nude side... And the talented side. She is simply
brilliant in this film. Couple this with a highly acclaimed supporting
role in another brave film, "Brokeback Mountain", and you have a young
actress who is breaking away from her 'puppy dogs and ice cream' image
with bold choices and enormous range. I always hoped that she would go
down this path... and now I am reasonably confident that she has a
long and fantastic career in front of her.
The film progresses, after the beat-down, with the girlfriends of the
humiliated wiggers deciding that their wimpy boyfriends are now
boring. They decide to head back down to the East-side to score some
hot tamales.
Okay, okay... I can hear some of you decrying my use of ethnic
terminology. Well, the fact is that this film deals with nothing but
these terms, facades and racial stereotypes. "Havoc" does not back
down from the politically correct boundaries... I feel I should write
this review in kind.
I want to point out that although most of the performances range from
good to great. The sole exception is the abysmally weak outing from
Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I understand that this film wants us to make fun
of these fakers... but he takes it to such an extreme that his role
steps over the line into lame farce. Every other actor in the film is
able to reign themselves in toward reality. Gordon-Levitt is unable to
manage that and it interrupts the suspension of disbelief that the
rest of the film earns.
The one magnificent performance is from Hathaway, whose role is that
of a lonely rich girl from the Pacific Palisades with unloving
parents, pathetic friends and a desperate need to be popular. In an
interesting sub-plot, one of her school mates is making an amateur
documentary on the social climate in the high school. When
interviewing Hathaway's character Allison, he tells her that she is
the loneliest person he's ever met. Her stunned reaction is priceless.
Throughout the film, Hathaway commands the screen with confidence and
a quiet desperation brewing beneath the cool exterior. This role
demands award consideration. However, the film's subject matter will
likely not allow that to happen.
There is only one scene in the film that strikes the wrong note. It
occurs about seventy minutes in and involves a near-rape situation.
When one of Allison's friends, played by Bijou Phillips, changes her
mind during a gang-bang, she is seemingly allowed to do so without
much of a fight. One gets the feeling that, in real life, she may not
have been so lucky.
"Havoc", penned by Stephen Gaghan ("Traffic" & "Syriana"), plays as
social commentary. It simultaneously roasts the wannabe-street
lifestyle of these rich white suburbanites while also sympathizing
that the supposed suburbia from which they come is a dull and
dysfunctional boredom-fest that begs to be spiced up with "real-life"
emotions and dangers.
'Nice' isn't good enough for these kids... They'd rather have pain and
risk and angst than that vanilla emotion. This film doesn't claim
they're right to want that, but it does ask why they want it. It seems
to suggest that these teens are desensitized to their sterile
environment. It seems to suggest that any stimulus at all would be
preferable to the numbness of their empty lives.
This is a sad film about a many sad groups of people. It's not sad
because we feel for the characters... It's sad because we have to
share this world with them. We have to be scared of them. We have to
pay the price for their ignorance and irresponsibility. But most of
all, it's sad because it seems to be a trend that is getting
exponentially worse in today's youth culture. |
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© Written by TC Candler -
Email Me! |
Richard
Propes' Comment
While
"Havoc" certainly has noble aims, too often the
film seems to be more histrionic than
disturbing. The male characters, in particular,
seem to be acting in a 50's melodrama rather
than a contemporary urban drama. While TC was
considerably more bothered by Gordon-Levitt's
over-the-top performance, I found myself
laughing uncontrollably at Mike Vogel's erratic,
all over the place performance much of the time.
I will confess, however, that Gordon-Levitt is
remarkably disappointing here, especially given
his string of rather incredible recent
performances including "Mysterious Skin" and
"Brick." Anne Hathaway does give a remarkable
performance that elevates this film above
mediocrity, but just barely.
Jacob
Hall's Comment
n/a
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