Some lines aren't meant to be crossed... They were done with playing it safe. When Allison (Hathaway) and Emily (Bijou Phillips) leave their rich suburb for a joyride through East L.A. they glimpse a frightening landscape of drugs violence and gang brutality. But as their fear turns to infatuation the friends find themselves seduced by the dark and dangerous world - where a pretty girl can get anything she wants... except a second chance. Two-time Oscar-winning director Barbara Kopple and Oscar-winning writer Stephen Gaghan deliver a stunningly gritty and riveting... erotic thriller about L.A. teens with a taste for the forbidden. Starring Anne Hathaway in a searing sexy and utterly unexpected role Havoc is one of the most shocking and controversial films of the year! [show more]
Award winning writer/director Stephen Gagen"s scripts often fluctuate from the excellent ('Syrianna') to the downright execrable ('Rules Of Engagement') 'Havoc', an urban teen morality tale, falls somewhere in-between; its largely ridiculous, but breezes by without doing too much damage. Eagle eyed viewers would have spotted the narrative embryo for 'Havoc' in Erika Christensen"s subplot from Gagen"s neo-realist drugs drama 'Traffic'. The idea of bored, rich white girls intrigued and voluntarily corrupted by the seedy, urban (i.e. Black or Hispanic) underworld, is realised via the whiter-than-white Anne Hathaway (playing against type) and indie favourite Bijou Phillips. Freddy Rodriquez (later seen in the excellent 'Harsh Times') manages to rise above the script"s limitations and turns a clichéd mouthpiece into a believable character, whilst director, and Academy award winning documentation, Barbara Koppple, ultimately seems to accept the fact that this movie"s only selling point is going to be Anne Hathaway in the buff. I wonder how 'Havoc' would"ve turned out had Jessica Kaplan, who was tragically killed in a 2003 plane crash aged just 24, been called in to look over Gagen"s screenplay; she wrote the story back in 1999 and may"ve bought it up to speed a little. For the most part, 'Havoc' is stylised, pretentious, preachy twaddle that rarely delves into the issues it brings up, and is thus little more than a mildly entertaining exploitation movie harbouring delusions of socio-political importance. Chaotic.
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Gritty teen drama in which a pair of naïve young girls, Allison (Anne Hathaway) and Emily (Bijou Phillips) learn that even the most insignificant actions can have lasting consequences. Influenced by the hip-hop thug lifestyle and seeking to explore life outside of their insulated, culturally homogenised suburb, the pretty young teenagers set their sights on East LA to experience the 'gangsta' lifestyle first-hand. But by the time they have become immersed in a frightening landscape of drugs, violence and gang brutality, they realise it may be too late to turn back.
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