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")

Six "20-something" high school students have been best friends forever. Upon coming of age, they decide to avoid adolescent sexual angst by pledging to only screw around with each other. But, things get sticky for the sextet when hot Amber Tamblyn (as Wendy Bergman) gets a load of hunky new neighbor Ashton Holmes (as Sean Mayer). Should Ms. Tamblyn stay with her sex buds - Kelli Garner (as Billie), Raviv Ullman (as Price), Stephen Colletti (as Robert), Julia Garro (as Ann), and Edward Tournier (as Jonah) - or split for Sean?

Surprisingly, nobody considered having Mr. Holmes join the group. This would have made the film more dynamic, and could still deal with the "one" v "multiple" partners debate. Also, Holmes could teach Ms. Garner (the only one who never broke the rules of the group) how to give a good spanking; because, as the group's unofficial leader, she really should know. The spanking scene between Tamblyn and Holmes is about as daring as the sexcapades get - although some more adventurous fun is implied to be going on.

For some reason (possibly, to deceive you into thinking there is more nudity in this film), the studio decided to re-title this film "Normal Adolescent Behavior: Havoc 2" somewhere along the way to its DVD release. Be advised, "Normal Adolescent Behavior" has nothing to do with "Havoc" (2005), which was a good story derailed by some strained performances (Freddy Rodriguez was good, though).

This film features a very connected Tamblyn (from "General Hospital", and the daughter of Russ Tamblyn) giving writer/director Beth Schacter an excellent lead performance. Tamblyn shows the dramatic fire of young Sally Field; hopefully, she'll have a long, successful career. And, you may recognize "Raviv Ullman" is indeed "Ricky Ullman" from "Phil of the Future", showing dramatic range of his own.

Ms. Schacter works incredibly well with the cast. In probably the best-written of the secondary roles, Ms. Garner shows why she should be a more well-regarded actress. Actually, all the supporting cast members, including "Watchmen" comic reader and cookin' little brother Daryl Sabara (as Nathan), leave you wanting to see more of their film work... so, can anyone explain, after seeing him in this film, why Mr. Tournier has only ONE feature film credit?

******* Normal Adolescent Behavior (4/27/07) Beth Schacter ~ Amber Tamblyn, Ashton Holmes, Kelli Garner, Ricky Ullman

Okay. Not sequel in the usual sense. But it does have Havoc 2 in the title. This movie by far puts Havoc the first movie; with Anne Hathaway, to shame. Miss. Hathaways acting was superb but the movie missed so much. This one's incredibly original. No it doesn't portray average teenagers today, but its a movie. Its suppose to be different and intriguing and lure you into another world. Even though these friends are not normal, the way the movie was made, the way the story was built, and of course the acting make it all believable. Made me feel like I felt when I saw The Craft in 5th grade. Truth be told the movies are similar in structure. Anyway, Props to all the people who worked on the move!

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 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.