Director: Harmony Korine
Screenplay: Harmony Korine
Starring: Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Rachal Corine, Ashley Benson, James Franco
Synopsis is here
It's been a while since I left a cinema screen with pretty much
every other viewer hating what they had just seen. I had to laugh as
considering the film, it was almost an inevitable. Harmony Korine's arthouse, wannabe
B movie didn't leave me so angry. Nor did I leave it feeling the opposite.
Spring Breakers' shallow mixture of greasy glam and titillation left
me lackadaisically indifferent. I feel this is far worse than some of
the exuberant glee I've read or venomous hate I saw, because those feelings would
be considered "the point" by the cool kids. Like I've hinted at
before in this blog, I was never a cool kid so all you'll get here is shrugs.
From the start it
seemed that the poor audience were set up for a fall. The trailers
before the film were Scary Movie 5 and The Hangover: Part 3. The T.V spots and
trailers give off a glimmering vision of neon, adolescent heaven, where every
day is dubstep and boobs. Everything seemed to be trying to attract a certain
type of audience expecting a certain type of movie. Korine isn't really
interested in the gloss, although it does feature quite heavily. Spring
Breakers appears to be more of a skewed, grubby version of The American Dream
as seen by a girl group raised on slick surface and MTV.
Despite its gaudy
dress up, Korine provides some interesting ideas.Themes of black
masculinity and hedonism as religion creep up on you. Meanwhile; the
film's imagery highlights the director’s love for the abstract and
poetic. Dialogue and visuals are juxtaposed and repeated at different
points providing a near cycular effect. These girls are bored of doing drugs
and handstands in their dorms but feel that the change of venue provides a new
philosophical bent on their snorting and amateur gymnastics. These circles
ripple we see not only the small microcosm of the girls but of the violence
they experience and the culture they wish to embrace. Spring
Break is represented as a never-ending pulsing haven in which the
beer never stops flowing and girl on girl action is always round the corner.
However, while the
Skrillex and Clint Mansell soundtrack (remember the drum and bass in Pi?) do
their best to keep the tone and energy up, Spring Breaker becomes
fidgety, frustrating and over involved in its own importance. It's clear that
Korine is having a massive joke about certain genre conventions and ideas but
he doesn't seem bothered in his audience’s engagement. Don't expect much from
the cyphers that are considered characters here. Much has been said
about Vanessa Hudgens and Selena Gomez departure from their Disney roots, but
Korine is more interested that the actors are who they are than placing any
effort to make the roles they play stand out for any other reason. James
Franco's Alien, strangely reminds me of Heath Ledger's turn in Lord of Dogtown,
but unlike Ledger, I felt Franco does fully lose himself in the role. Squint a
bit, and he's still James.
An indulgent and
fussy piece which mixes the divine (the girls doing ring around the roses with
shotguns is an unbelievable image) with the tedious, Spring Breakers
like Korine's earlier Gummo brings an honest and different look to typical
proceedings. Unfortunately much like the head bending pieces of the likes of
Lynch or even the aggressive manoeuvres Korine's own idol Herzog, the film
does little to reach any emotional height. I don't feel that the film is
"gash" or "shit", like I heard everyone else exclaim
amongst leaving the theatre. The problem is I can't see me watching the film
again to see if it's anything else.
