Havoc

Being a bit of an auteurist, and directorial completist, I TiVo’d this Barbara Kopple feature when it showed up on Sundance. Not much to it, but I wasn’t sorry to watch it. Kopple actually makes the transition from documentary pretty well, but is saddled with a hackneyed script (rich girl from Pacific Palisades looks for kicks and explores her dark side by trips into the Barrio, and learns more than she bargained for) and thin characterizations (Anne Hathaway and Bijou Phillips bare their boobs more than their souls, and Freddy Rodriguez of Six Feet Under is amusing but risible as the Latin drug lord.) I’ve been spoiled by The Wire not to accept anything less than complete authenticity in depictions of The Corner, but Kopple does imbue these good-girl-on-the-bad-side-of-town proceedings with some sense of place and risk. And give her credit, at the same time she was spreading this piece of cheese, she was co-director on the outstanding documentary, Bearing Witness, about five newswomen in Iraq, a hard film to track down but well worth the effort. (2005, Sund/T, n.) *5+*