To Celebrate Anne Hathaway’s Wedding, I Take In Havoc!

The Good: Generally decent acting, Explores interethnic relations in a straightforward manner.
The Bad: Utterly unlikable characters, Almost absent plot
The Basics: Havoc meanders through one white poseur girl’s interactions with Latino gangmembers in Los Angeles.


Synchronicity is a wonderful and weird thing. After years of trying to find Havoc on DVD, as I am a fan of Anne Hathaway’s works, I managed to get the disc in from my new library system just yesterday. As fortune would have it, I complete the Anne Hathaway film library on the day of her (first*) marriage! I knew nothing about Havoc before picking it up, save that it is an especially hard video for the library to find and Anne Hathaway appears topless in it (which disproved the notion that she only takes her clothes off for films Jake Gyllenhaal is in!).

As it stood, I watched Havoc, which also features Joseph Gordon-Levitt the morning after being impressed by his work in Looper (reviewed here!), so I was prepared to enjoy the film on several levels.

Opening with Allison Lang defining children from Los Angeles’s The Palisades as exceptionally sheltered on video, she and her friends discuss why they have adopted gangster culture over identifying with anything classically “white.” After getting into a fight with Latino gangsters, proving her claims that they are young and acting stupid, as Eric video tapes them and the party that follows. While Allison’s parents struggle with their marriage, she continues to hang out with Toby, Sam, and Emily. They take a trip into East Los Angeles where Toby tries to pick up drugs from the hustlers there. Despite Toby getting humiliated over the deal gone bad, Allison continued to hang out with him.

Following that, Allison and her girlfriends hang out with rich white businessmen, get high and head downtown. Allison returns without her friends to hang out with Hector that leads her to get thrown – very temporarily - in juvenile detention. Hanging out with Emily the next day, Emily reveals her true feelings to her and they go together to a family event together. Emily and Allison make moves to join Hector’s gang, which quickly turns dark for all involved.

Havoc is a tough film to get excited about. It’s all about poseur characters who fake being tougher than they are. They are universally unlikable because none of them seem very genuine, except in the moments their facades come down. This can be problematic in that it is hard to evaluate the characters for being “real” when they spend so much time working to be anything other than that.

So, for example, when Allison begs Hector for Toby’s life, she cracks and seems realistically desperate. Emotional fragility in that sort of moment is entirely realistic. Similarly, when one of the gang members sees how terrified Allison’s friends are when they infiltrate downtown while high, his “boo!” rxposes them as simple, real people in a way that Allison’s friends do not really see them. Regardless, given how much “nigger” (the word) is thrown around and how infrequently the characters seem like interesting people having a universal experience. Allison pimping out her friend and Amanda actually continuing to go along with her friends when she is clearly uncomfortable “reads” as real wrong.

On the acting front, Havoc holds up, largely because the performers made me loathe the disingenuous qualities of the characters. Hathaway’s Allison is skanky and plays a character who is acting. As she breaks out into “street” voice for the camera, it is as laughable as when any teenager does that. She plays a druggie almost convincingly. Unfortunately, she is too good for her character. When Allison begins to rant on camera, she comes at Eric with multiple characters and while Hathaway sells the different characters, she fails to sell that Allison is smart, clever, and a good enough actor to sell those different characters. In simpler terms, Hathaway is a smart actress playing a ridiculous character who suddenly seems smart for a scene and that does not work.

Far more impressive than Hathaway in Havoc is Freddy Rodriguez. Rodriguez is in a completely different role than the one that made his career in Six Feet Under (reviewed here!). Rodriguez has an entirely different posture and attitude than his character from Six Feet Under and he sells it. Channing Tatum’s brief role has the actor almost unrecognizable and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s lackey character is absolutely laughable, but Gordon-Levitt effectively sells himself as that type of idiotic character.

Also good is Bijou Phillips. Long before her character reveals her romantic interest in Allison, Phillips plays those elements up in her performance with her body language, looks, and the way she delivers her lines.

Havoc seems like it wants to be, alternatively Crash (reviewed here!) and Requiem For A Dream (reviewed here!). The film is far too jumbled for that and the essential character conflicts are nowhere near as compelling. Allison realistically sells the film in the opening when she says that she and her friends are young, dumn, and bored. As a result, the film never achieves the personal, wrenching pathos of Requiem For A Dream. Similarly, because the main protagonists are just young, dumb, and bored, none of them reach the honest emotional complexity of the characters in Crash. The result is that Havoc is, more frequently, young people behaving badly. Given how Emily and Allison go searching for thugs, it is tough to be sympathetic to them when their characters get into violent situations as a result of their ridiculously bad decisions.

The film tries, by adding elements like Allison’s parents having marital difficulties that make them neglectful (which makes most of the film possible), but it never commits to the full premise. Halfway through the movie, Havoc drops the filmmaking conceit and Eric’s character.  By the time it comes back into play, right before the film's inevitable clash of gangs, the viewer is unlikely to actually care about it or be honestly sympathetic to the characters involved.

Havoc appears on DVD with only previews for other films. Loaded with offensive language, nudity, and excessive drug use, Havoc rises to mediocre, but fails to be anything enduringly worthwhile.

For works featuring Anne Hathaway, please check out my reviews of:
Anne Hathaway For Wonder Woman!
The Dark Knight Rises
One Day
Rio
Love And Other Drugs
Family Guy Presents: It's A Trap!
Alice In Wonderland
Valentine's Day
Twelfth Night Soundtrack
Bride Wars
Rachel Getting Married
Passengers
Get Smart
Becoming Jane
The Devil Wears Prada
Hoodwinked!
Brokeback Mountain
The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
Ella Enchanted
Nicholas Nickleby
The Other Side Of Heaven
The Princess Diaries

4/10

For other film reviews, please check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!


* We wish Ms. Hathaway all the luck in the world**, but 1. Hollywood marriages seldom last and 2. If my wife can hold out hope for David Bowie leaving Iman so she’ll have a chance with him, I ought to be able to keep the torch burning for Hathaway!

** In all seriousness, happy Anne Hathaway wedding day! We wish you all the best for a long, happy, and emotionally satisfying marriage!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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More Singing, Less Politics Sinks The Dixie Chicks' Documentary Shut Up And Sing

The Good: Interesting political story, Some decent music, Articulate positions
The Bad: Overbearing emphasis on the music, Problems with some footage, Lack of information presented/DVD Bonuses
The Basics: Focusing more on how the Dixie Chicks make music than the controversy surrounding a statement that the lead singer made, Shut Up And Sing is fragmented and disappointing.


A few years back, when I was visiting my mother, she had The Oprah Winfrey Show on and the Dixie Chicks were on plugging the documentary Shut Up And Sing. Because I don't do it very often, I vividly remember yelling at the television and getting disgusted with Oprah as she repeatedly asked Emily Robison and Martie Maguire if they ever got annoyed with lead singer Natalie Maines for commenting about George W. Bush at a London show. When both stood by Maines, as they previously had done, she continually rephrased the question and she kept probing Maines clearly trying to get the women to crack and express some remorse for speaking up or for sticking with each other unfailingly. It was one of those annoying television moments where it becomes clear that an interviewer has an agenda as opposed to seeking the truth. I was honestly pleased when none of the trio wavered from their stance or was suckered in by Oprah's badgering to say anything less than "We stand by our statements."

In 2003, the Dixie Chicks were in London performing while the Bush Administration geared up for an unprovoked war against Iraq. On stage, lead singer Natalie Maines says something to the effect that they (the Dixie Chicks) are ashamed that President Bush is from Texas. It's a pretty bold statement whenever Texans are irked with a warrior (the history of Texas is a fairly bloody one, after all) and immediately right-wing bloggers on the internet begin to launch a campaign ruin the career of the Dixie Chicks through boycotts of their music on the radio and sales of their c.d.s. Two years later, the Dixie Chicks struggle to create a new album and find a new audience.

That's what kills the movie for me. Shut Up And Sing was billed by most critics as a movie about the political controversy surrounding the Dixie Chicks. It was billed as a documentary that explored the effects of exercising freedom of speech and documenting the struggle the Dixie Chicks went through in losing their core audience. In that way, the movie fails. This is a movie more about the Dixie Chicks and how they make music than politics.

In the interest of full disclosure, I don't care about the Dixie Chicks. I'm not a fan of most country music, I liked the video for "Earl's Gotta' Die" (with Dennis Franz!), and I feel like the Dixie Chicks were screwed unjustly for exercising their freedoms which they should be free to exercise. At the end of the day, though, I've never cared either way about the Dixie Chicks; they're outside my sphere.

That said, the movie fails not only because I do not care about the music of the Dixie Chicks but because the documentary is left searching for things to say and does not bother to resolve elements that it places importance on. The movie, for example, sets up the stage for a great conflict over the Dixie Chicks as they return to making music in 2005 and 2006. And while ticket sales are slow, when they return to London to kick off their tour, the signs say "Sold Out." And their new album debuts at #1 on the Billboard charts, including the country music charts.

So, after belaboring the struggle to get their new music heard and presented, Natalie Maines essentially says "screw the country music stations, we're not going to be a country band anymore for a while." After that declaration, the movie spends more time looking at what is happening within the country music realm - ticket sales in Country territory for the new tour fare poorly - and then everything is resolved quite neatly with two clips stating that the Dixie Chicks are at the top of the charts, including the Country charts.

?!

Yeah, the narrative does not make much sense. In a similar way, the film belabors the threat of assassination in Texas when Maines received a death threat. When she is not killed, there is no reaction from the group or fans. There's nothing said about any lingering impact. Did they run over the guy and know he'd never be a threat again?! Nope, they finish the Dallas show and don't mention it in the film again.

Directors Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck fill the movie with such gaps in logic or information. They do not make the movie accessible for those who are not a part of the Country Music scene. So, for example, they immediately leap into exploring a controversy with Toby Keith. I've no idea what the conflict was about firmly because it's not shown in the movie. Instead, it's mentioned and the Dixie Chicks (primarily Maines) react to it.

So, much of the movie is spent instead with the Dixie Chicks in the studio trying to figure out what their next album is going to be like. The most joy I took in this section was when I instantly recognized Red Hot Chili Peppers's drummer Chad Smith in the studio. Simple pleasures. The only moment of musical interest to me was when Robison or Maguire expressed concern about how her sound fit in - or didn't - on the new album. The idea that she might be irrelevant in a new sound for the band was interesting and compelling and after the issue is raised, it simply is not brought up again. As someone who has not heard the new album and does not have a comparative reference, I don't know if she is still relevant or how that was resolved.

On an essentially human front, near the end, one of the bandmembers begins crying and declaring that she is ready to give everything up to let Natalie live a normal life again. It's a compelling moment and one that is edited too short. That's a flaw throughout the movie, as is the quality of some of the video footage. Because the subject of the documentary could not be known until after it happened, the film relies on poor-quality footage, like the key moment Maines makes her on-stage statement.

As well, the movie periodically goes on a tangent that does not otherwise fit the movie. When Robison has her baby, for example, the movie kills a couple of minutes dealing with that. It has nothing to do with the political controversy and little to do with the creation of music for the band's new album. It's thrown in because it's something that happened to the Dixie Chicks.

Throughout the movie, new songs are being written, practiced, and tweaked. This becomes a constant and all of a sudden, the Dixie Chicks are simply singing. The movie suddenly ends with an otherwise indistinct song, like many of the other songs throughout the movie. So, the movie is going on and on and on and then poof! it ends without any fanfare.

The DVD has no bonus features to speak of, save the theatrical trailer.

In final analysis, this is a somewhat sloppy documentary, lacking the polish of Fahrenheit 9/11 (reviewed here!) or the amazing environmental documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Either of those are superior choices for anyone looking for poignant political documentaries loaded with information. There's not a better musical documentary coming right to mind, though the Red Hot Chili Peppers loaded the Greatest Hits DVD (reviewed here!) of their videos with extensive commentary and behind the scenes features on each video that it can be watched like a documentary.

For other documentaries, please check out my reviews of:
Wal-Mart: The High Cost Of Low Price
An Inconvenient Truth
George W. Bush: Faith In The White House

4/10

For other movie reviews, please visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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