“HAVOC” (2005)

Starring: Anne Hathaway, Bijou Phillip, Freddy Rodríguez & Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Written by Jessica Kaplan (story)
& Stephen Gaghan (screenplay)
Directed by Barbara Kopple

Polly Staffle Rating: ***

Anne Hathaway obviously doesn't want to be pigeonholed as a clean-cut star of family entertainment. She's 23 and I'm sure she wants to move on from “The Princess Diaries.” And who can blame her? What serious actress wants to be the next Lindsay Lohan with the studio digitally making her breasts smaller?

Many young stars have moved on from their early careers to be good adult actresses. But Hathaway's performance in “Havoc” isn't quite Thora Birch in “American Beauty,” it's more Elizabeth Berkley in “Showgirls.”

Not only is Hathaway’s character Allison a wannabe gangster hip-hop girl, she also takes her clothes off any chance she gets, including a scene in which she performs oral sex. (I made a point in mentioning that scene to show you the gratuitousness of the nudity in this Barbara Kopple directed film. I mean come on, I'm all for nudity but is it necessary to be topless in order to perform oral sex?)

Allison and the “gang” she runs with are so embarrassingly funny that my girlfriend actually commented a number of times how the movie is painful to watch. The movie is quite hilarious actually and a lot better that I thought it would be, but it is agonizing to watch as well.

I saw on IMDb’s message board someone made a post titled “Havoc - Setting Latinos back 40 years.” I think quite the contrary. This movie sets “whites” back. You remember the Jamie Kennedy movie “Malibu's Most Wanted” where he played B-Rad the wannabe rapper? This is a “serious” movie full of B-Rads.

Growing up in the “hood” of Pacific Palisades, California is hard. Yeah, this movie is about a bunch of rich white teenagers that live in beautiful homes, drive new expensive cars and have parents. They could do anything they want and have the opportunities most don't have, but they are bored with their life, so they pretend they are “down” with the streets. These teenagers don't even do a good job of faking it.

After a night “rolling with her crew” in East L.A., Allison becomes intrigued with a real Latino dope dealer, Hector (Freddy Rodriguez of “Six Feet Under”). She and her friend Emily (played by Bijou Phillips in almost the same role she had in “Bully”) later “kick it” with the dealer's crew and get in way over their heads. (Ironic that Hathaway trying to prove she's a bad girl would be playing a character that wants to prove how bad she is, isn’t it?)

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is also on board here as one of Allison's homeboys. He has already put his “3rd Rock from the Sun” days behind him with previous roles in “Manic” and “Mysterious Skin” and is hilarious here every time he opens his mouth.

What makes the characters so amusing is how clueless they all are. Their lives are just so horrible. Do they not know how bad some people in this country have it? No, they don't. There's actually a joke in the movie, which was written by Stephen Gaghan (“Abandon”), where Allison makes a reference to people starving in India and a videographer who is obsessed with taping her and her friends says there are people starving in Santa Monica.

There is another scene where Hector comments that most people think of his neighborhood as a place to buy drugs, but it's more than that, it's where people live. I liken it to a poverty-stricken country that people go to vacation. They go and exploit the country’s resources, all the while there are people who live there, not by choice, but because they have to that remain there after the visitor’s fun is up. It's just like that in Las Vegas. People waste money gambling and on plenty of other vices, while the number of homeless people in this city grows bigger and bigger each year. The people throwing their money away and staying in a comp hotel room have the nerve to complain how their life sucks when there are those begging for change and sleeping on the street.

Sure people with money have problems, but having money eliminates lots of them. I was reminded of Eminem (Marshall Mathers) while watching this film. I was specifically reminded of his song “Evil Deeds.” In the song, Slim Shady pokes fun at himself, rapping “Woe is me, there goes poor Marshall again, whining about his millions and his mansion and his sorrow he's always drowning in. And the dad that he never had, and how his childhood was so bad. And how his mom was a dope addict and his ex-wife, how they go at it. Man I'd hate to have it as bad as that Mr. Mathers claims he had it. I can't imagine it. That little poor white bastard needs to take some of that cash out of the bank and take a bath in it.”

The “8 Mile” star is probably the most to blame for white teenagers pretending they are “gangsta.” The big difference between Eminem and the kids in this movie is Slim Shady is just being true to himself. He's poor white trash from the streets and he knows there are lines even he doesn't cross as he never uses the n-word. But no matter what he does, he will never be able to erase his past. The same goes for Anne Hathaway, no matter how many nude scenes she does.

Lazy Man's Review

Instead of letting studios digitally reduce her breasts so she can play in “Princess Diaries 3,” Anne Hathaway dumps the family values to get buck wild. A serious movie about crazy “crackers” that think they are thugs, “Havoc” ends up being hilarious and a pretty good watch.

- CCF, February 2006