This movie was thrown out on DVD in 2005 without any real theatrical release. It's well pedigreed for such treatment, directed by famed documentarian Barbara Kopple (Harlan County USA), written by late phenom Jessica Kaplan, "fixed" by famed screenwriter Stephen Gaghan (Traffic) and starring Anne Hathaway in her first serious role. The film is far from perfect, but it isn't nearly as bad as people have said. It's main problem is that it is undoubtedly exploitative. Hathaway and co-star Bijou Philips both get naked, the kind of naked that leaves the viewer feeling sleazy. The film is about a group of teenagers from upscale Los Angeles who like to play gangsta, pretending they're black or Latino. When Hathaway's boyfriend is threatened by a Latino drug dealer (Freddy Rodriguez of Planet Terror), she is attracted to the more authentic gangsta scene. She becomes involved with Rodriguez, which leads to the titular havoc. While many of the characters are one-dimensional and uninteresting, Hathaway's is well written, and she turns in the best performance of her career up to that point. She's nearly as intriguing here as she would later be in Rachel Getting Married. Also appearing is my favorite young actor of today, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, but he has a pretty weak role, so it's not worth watching just for him.
Havoc
(2005)
Better than it's given credit for being, though certainly far from great
29 December 2008