Spring Breakers is a crime film written and directed by Harmony Korine, starring Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine and James Franco. The film follows four college-aged girls, Faith, Brit, Candy, and Cotty, on their spring break in Florida where they engage a reckless behavior.
“We’re in a magic place, y’all. You can change who you are, yo. Bikinis and big booties, yo. That’s what life is about.”
First, I need to confess that I enjoyed Spring Breakers more than I thought I would. The film might look like a cheap teen party. I admit that. It has its flaws, but when you look deeper, under the party-like themes, you discover a poem of violence and eroticism. Spring Breakers is a loud cry on the outside and a soft symphony in the inside. Nevertheless, the crowded and reckless parties seem to be too much for some viewers, stealing the thunder, pushing the meaning even deeper into the film.
“I’m tired of seeing the same thing. Everybody’s so miserable here because they see the same things everyday, they wake up in the same bed, same houses, same depressing streetlights, one gas station, grass, it’s not even green, it’s brown. Everything is the same and everyone is just sad. I really don’t want to end up like them. I just want to get out of here. There’s more than just spring break. This is our chance to see something different.”
Harmony Korine did a good job as both director and writer of Spring Breakers giving a fresh air to an obscene film. If we put aside the party moments, Korine manages to give a fragrant atmosphere to a violent and erotic film, pushing its violence and eroticism to an upper level, allegorical and “poetical”, aesthetical and meaningful in the same time.
James Franco makes a great part in portraying Alien, an ambitious and materialist rapper/gangster. The apparent spinelessness is countered by its deepness, although we’re talking about a minimal philosophy, marked by money and power mostly. In some way, Alien remembers me of a stereotypical guy who is driven by a poor background and his thirst for materialism. That being said, France manages a great part, despite the his teeth wrapped in tinfoil and dreadlocks. After all, like the whole film, Alien is marked by the difference between appearances and depth.
“This was my dream. I made it come true. This is the f****** American dream. This is the f****** dream y’all. This is my s***. Look at my s***. I got shorts, every f****** color. I got designer t-shirts. I got gold bullets. Motherf****** vampires. I got my dark tannin’ oil, lay out by the pool. This is the American dream, y’all.”
In what regards the feminine part of this film, I only have to attack the characters of Gomez and Korine, who chicken out and leave the picture. I don’t have to condemn their performances, even if there were slights slips on the road. The innocence of Faith and the cowardness of Cotty almost irritated me, but after all they managed to highlight the amplitude of Candy and Brit (Hudgens and Benson). The devotion for the story brings out the character of Hudgens and Benson and their acting as well. After all, the film would have been to crowded with so many main characters.
“We’re gonna change the world, y’all. This is poetry in motion.”
In conclusion, Spring Break is a hard nut with a tasteful core. Direction/Script went hand to hand, especially from a visual and ideational perspective. Franco, Benson and Hudgens did amazing parts. The modern assertion of pop culture seen from such a vision is something to watch this spring. No matter if we talk about characters or plot, Spring Breakers remains a film of contrasts, the contrast between appearances and depth, between the tinfoil and the teeth under it (excuse the uninspired little joke, y’all).
Sorry
Futility 