Spring Breakers - Review

Written and Directed by: Harmony Korine

Rated R for strong sexual content, language, nudity, drug use and violence throughout

Release Date: March 22, 2013

Review by: Sean Kayden

The latest film from independent cult director Harmony Korine is one 90-minute explicit music video. Depictions of drugs, booze, sex, and violence all rolled up for an ADHD generation. Perhaps, “Spring Breakers” is in indication of how this generation of college students like to let loose and will do so at anyone’s expense. The film’s social commentary is heightened when in one particular scene when Candy (Vanessa Hudgens) and Brit (Ashley Benson) are in their history class and out of boredom start drawing sexual pictures and yearn for spring break. The generation they were learning about fought for survival and to see the light of a new day, these girls are fighting for the right to party. When the two girls along with their two friends, Faith (Selena Gomez) and Cotty (Rachel Korine) put their money together, they discover they’re significantly short of heading to their spring break destination. It’s then when the “bad girls” of the group Candy and Brit come up with an idea to knock off a diner at gunpoint to secure the rest of the funds needed. With the help of Cotty as the getaway driver, the girls successfully pull off the robbery. They head back to their dorms to share the exciting news with their childhood friend, Faith, the ultra religious and “good” girl of the pack. While the news seems a bit disturbing at first, she quickly engages in the celebration. A celebration that has them leaving their humdrum lives for a week’s worth of total adventure and uncertainty. An uncertainty they’re deeply craving because the only thing certain in their lives is the day to day monotonous of an ordinary, no thrills, and no frills lifestyle.

It is then in the midst of raging parties of excessive booze, narcotics and sex is when the girls get taken away by authorities for drug use at a hotel. The four girls, in only their bikinis are locked up. They’re looking at a few days in jail if they don’t come up the fine. It is then where we meet for the second time (first time when he’s rapping on stage) Alien, a white boy rapper/drug dealer played by James Franco with extraordinary bravura. His performance alone may be the only redeeming quality of the film. A presentation so over the top, so out of this world that you can’t help but not to laugh with him and usually at him. He takes a deep liking to the four girls, especially the innocent Faith, who never wanted anything like this to happen. However, as things become too much for her to cope with, she realizes she doesn’t want to be part of this any longer and simply wants to go back to school. Without much of a struggle to keep her around, they let her go. The girls lose their friend faith, along with some of their own faith as she says goodbye. However, the other three girls love the situation they’ve found themselves in. They thrive for the opportunity to be Alien’s new cronies and possibly lovers. According to Alien, he has it all. And by all, I mean a lot of banal possessions. He raves about his collection of shorts in all colors, his multiple Calvin Kline colognes that make him smell nice and how he has “Scarface” on infinite repeat all day long. The bond between Alien and the girls becomes strong. They start helping him rip off other spring breakers at gunpoint and the fun continues on and on for the four of them. But the fun quickly comes to a halt when Alien’s ex-best friend and rival gang leader, Archie (Gucci Mane) informs Alien to step off his territory if he knows what’s best.

Things go from bad to worst when Alien doesn’t listen and Archie retaliates by shooting up their car one night, wounding Cotty in the arm. After this, she decides she needs to go back home. Strangely enough, the two bad seeds of the group, decide to stay. As Cotty leaves, in the same fashion as Faith, the other girls fall back into their mischievous ways with Alien. The three of them together are a solid trio now, tighter and closer than ever. As much as Alien puts up a hardcore exterior, he kind of has a soft side. He shows a bizarrely caring attitude for these girls as if they’re not just any other girls to him, but his soulmates. Of course the way he talks to them is humorous, but you can’t dismiss the sincerity he displays. Alien does bad things for his pursuit of the “American Dream,” yet deep down inside he has a lovable vulnerability in him.  He may be idiotic but he’s admirable, romantic in a cheesy way and sort of amicable.
     However, despite Franco’s strong, showy acting performance, the movie incredibly falls apart in the last ten to fifteen minutes.  The ending is so far fetched that this throws away any creditability the movie may have had leading up to it. Writer/director Harmony Korine took a very provocative approach in making this movie. He has repeated dialogue all throughout the film as well as the saying “Spring break forever” frequently whispered by Alien and other characters. I’m not sure what’s scarier, the way violence is displayed in the film or the way people purely act on spring break. Talk about throwing all your inhibitions out the window. In this particular case, the film makes the girls look way more promiscuous, crude, and careless than any of the guys. I applaud Korine’s sense of style and the way he has the audience as simply an observer, but never a participant in his story. We’re kept at arms length, but enough distance to be slightly out of reach. We observe from the outside, not in and that’s what the movie is sort of about. “Spring Breakers” has young adults going to great lengths for a sense of adventure, belonging, and acceptance. This generation is as bored as ever and that right there is a terrifying ordeal. “Spring Breakers” may just be the tip of the iceberg and it’s haunting portrayal will surely stir up those unaware. As a narrative work of art, the film simply doesn’t live up to the message it’s trying to hammer home. Sadly, the film is as hollow as its female characters, but if that’s what unconventional director Harmony Korine was aiming for all along, then success is what he got.

Grade: 2.5 out of 5

Published by Mountain Views News on March 30th, 2013
http://mtnviewsnews.com/v07/htm/n13/p13.htm