Normal Adolescent Behavior

The six suburban high-school friends Wendy (Amber Tamblyn), Billie (Kelli Garner), Ann (Julia Garro), Jonah (Edward Tournier), Price (Raviv Ullman) and Robert (Stephen Colletti) share a sexual relationship among them since elementary school swapping partners without regrets or excuses. When the newcomer Sean (Ashton Holmes) moves to the next door of Wendy coming from Chicago, the girl feels attracted by him. But her bond with her friends split her feelings between the normal relationship with the conservative Sean and the kinky sex she uses to have with her mates. Meanwhile her younger brother Nathan (Daryl Sabara) has a crush on Sean's mother Helen (Kelly Lynch) and uses his ability of cooking to try to seduce her.

"Normal Adolescent Behavior" is a pointless and shallow coming of age story of a group of promiscuous friends from dysfunctional families that have a club of kinky sex. The unrealistic characters do not have any previous development of their motives for such behavior and their fake relationship is simply thrown to the viewers through the dramatic dilemma of Wendy that has a past and does not know if she shall be another slut in her group of friends or the girlfriend of a nice guy. I do not know the background or the (mental) age of the writer and director Beth Schacter, but she certainly might have impressed teenagers in the wrong way with this stupid and dull story. The title is awful and mislead the viewers and should be "The Society Is Made of Rules", no matter whether it is a brotherhood of sex or the conventional society. The good point is the acting of these promising young actors and actresses that could not do better with this terrible screenplay. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Rebeldes Sem Causa" ("Rebels without Cause")

I was astounded by the very negative reviews I read here, I thought the movie Normal Adolescent Behavior was fantastic. The use of the group-sex pact I thought, really showed how people grow up and evolve. While some viewers may say it was over-the-top, I have to disagree, although the situation is pretty unusual, those kinds of things happen every once and a while, things that sound so bizarre, parents don't even take the rumors seriously. It was so thought-provoking, days after seeing this film I kept analyzing what relationships really mean, a major theme of the movie. You see how with all of these so-called "liberated" sexual practices in teen culture, such as nameless sex partners and girls going down on boys for status hurts teens' ability to have healthy sexual relationships. I, as a highschooler can also vouch that things such as the party scenes are not unrealistic, just kept very quiet. I talked to my mother about the issues of this film, and any movie that can spark discussions between teenagers and adults about sex, I think, is a good thing.

If you're drawn to this movie because of its DVD box description--something about a "scorching", "seductive", "dangerous" and "sizzling hot" drama--hmm, you might be let down. Ironically enough, if you're somewhat turned off by that sensational marketing but decide to watch it anyway, read on because there's a real treat in store.

I have absolutely no clue how I ended up watching this. I'm well past my teen years, and what's more, my teen years weren't exactly something anyone would write a movie about. My high school experience was about as sizzling hot as the Brady Bunch. I didn't really want to see a bunch of stylish supermodel teenagers doing all the naughty things I wish I could've done in some alternate universe designed by Mtv.

Well, almost immediately I realized that's not the angle this movie chose to take. First of all, the acting is very genuine. Not like a bunch of cool vampires who speak entirely in clever 1-liners, but the way real humans speak to each other: sometimes awkward, sometimes goofy, with very real emotion and natural language, almost as if the actors departed from the script and would ad lib their lines, jokes and reactions. So OK, I thought, real characters and believable dialogue is a major plus. I'll keep watching another 20 minutes or so. (Aside: be sure to watch the deleted scenes for some amazing, brutally honest scenes with excellent acting. Why they got cut I have no idea except that maybe "real life" type conversations are too boring for the average moviegoer?)

And then the real theme of the story emerges, grabbing me hook, line, and sinker. Sure, it's about a bunch of teens who form a strange (some would say perverse) 6-way love hexagon. But really their strange arrangement is meant to be the opposite of the rampant, casual sex hookups that all the other high schoolers are trying to do. Make no mistake: this is NOT about any sort of diabolical kinky sex orgy. The director was very careful to avoid all that, as well as drugs, alcohol (ok maybe I saw 1 beer), and gratuitous profanity, because all of that would've upstaged the real point of the story.

And so the central question emerges: is an exclusive 6-way love relationship morally inferior to a love life of fleeting hookups? Or more directly to the point: is it better to have a bunch of trusted friends-with-benefits, or take your chances in the whole boyfriend-girlfriend meat market? Furthermore, what happens when you fall for someone who can't understand the logic in your deviation from the norm?

This is what I meant by "Chasing Amy" in my title. "Normal Adolescent Behavior" challenges the viewer by presenting a type of "abnormal" or "deviant" sexual idea that can actually make more sense than our normal human mating rituals. And, as in Chasing Amy, severe conflict arises when a deviant character and a normal character fall for each other.

What I really liked about this movie is that nothing is canned. Nothing is black & white predictable, and each character undergoes dynamic changes just like we do in real life. Nobody is the designated good guy or the obligatory villain (although Kelli Garner "Billie" has a few awesome psycho scenes that would make Glenn Close shake in her boots). What we get is a very appealing, realistic and mature portrayal of relationships that could apply to anyone, not just 17-year-old high schoolers.

In fact, the high school setting made this story more universal because it wasn't weighed down by the adult baggage that grownups have. Also this movie remains relatively tame, believe it or not. There is some nudity but only when necessary to convey a point, and even then the nudity is obscured or blurred.

So yes, if you're looking for a scorching sizzling seductive late-nighter, you might want to look elsewhere. But if you're up for an intelligent, morally challenging exposé of love, sexuality and the bizarre mating rituals of the human species, then grab your popcorn and settle in.

This movie is called Havoc: 2 Normal Adolescent Behavior I am guessing it is part two to Havoc starring Anne Hathaway which I thought was really bad. But this movie was fairly good it shows you that perfectly smart teens can do things you wouldn't expect I mean its like a teenage swingers club if you ask me.

I mean all the sex they never really did anything normal with each other like go to the movies and stuff so there was nothing ever normal about their behavior. Then again it also makes you question a one on one relationships. It seems like the guy was trying to save her and I wish there was a better ending like you see him burning the box and her actually acknowledging her brother but it wasn't like your typical happy ending.

I saw this film at the Tribecca film festival earlier this year. To be completely honest with you, i think that it may be one of the worst movies i've seen. i was on the fence with my decision because some of the acting was very good, but i finally came to the realization, that this movie was dull, pretentious, obnoxious, poorly written and not well put together at all. Beth schacter seemed pretty pleased with herself at the premiere. I was not pleased, at all. The scenes did not flow together at all. It was amazingly noticeable when a scene changed. The dialogue was flimsy, and often times hipocritical.Half of the point was to show these teenagers as teenagers, but then they would just come out with these insanely mature things to say. It left you sitting there saying "where the hell did that come from?" Another thing...teens and sex. NOTHING new was said on the topic. Alright, teenagers are engaging in rather risky sexual behaviors at younger ages, heard it before, what else you got? Tone in the movie was probably the first thing i noticed. The movie would just take you through moods like it wasn't no thing. It would make you chuckle at one point, then INSTANTLY try to get you sad and somber. It expected you to switch emotions like you would a lamp. It wasn't working, at all. Finally, I have a question for Ms. Schacter. Just what was the message about teenagers you were trying to get across? Cuz it seemed to me you were sort of confused yourself. Are you trying to say that being a teenager is one of the greatest times of life? That we should all be nostalgic for our days of puberty? Or are you trying to say that as teenagers, we are all selfish creatures, taking no regard for others feelings while living in a world of 'me'? I honestly don't want this movie released, it's not shocking, it's not interesting, it's not controversial, and there's nothing new said here, at all. Life is too short for such a pretentiously dull movie.