Spring Breakers
SPRING BREAKERS (18)
D: Harmony Korine
A24/Muse/Annapurna/Radar (Chris Hanley, Jordan Gertner, David
Zander & Charles-Marie Anthonioz)
US 2013
94 mins
Drama/Crime
W: Harmony Korine
DP: Benoît Debie
Ed: Douglas Crise
Mus: Skrillex & Cliff Martinez
Vanessa Hudgens (Candy), Selena Gomez (Faith), Ashley Benson
(Brit), Rachel Korine (Cotty), James Franco (Alien), Gucci Mane (Big Arch)
This title may sound like a comedy and the marketing may
make it look like one, but this is NOT a comedy. It isn't even satirical.
In fact, once you realise that the director is Harmony
Korine, screenwriter of 1995's controversial film Kids, you'll know that this is aiming for social commentary on the youth of today. Even that doesn't work particularly well here
either.
Being English, 'Spring Break' is an Americanism which I've
never experienced, but can't imagine it being too different from a "Club 18-30" holiday where youngsters get shitfaced on drink/drugs and want to fuck/fight each other. Not really my
idea of a good time, but different strokes for different folks.
The film focuses on a quartet of teenage girls who are
desperate to get to spring break to let themselves go wild but they're short on cash, so three of them don masks to rob a restaurant with fake guns for the necessary funds to get
away.
While on their jollies, the four girls get arrested and
jailed for drug use and haven't any money for bail. Reluctant to ask their parents, a seedy gangster named 'Alien' (a nearly unrecognisable James Franco) comes to their rescue and stumps up
the cash.
One of the girls then travels back to her chaste life
while the other three stay to live in the culture of their drug-lord, gun-toting gangster, whom they all develop a sexual relationship with before going on a crime spree.
The film ends with the girls succumbing to a life of
crime, seemingly making either a point that it's easy to be manipulated into such culture or 'some people are just born bad'.
Personally, I think there is no message, it's just an
attempt to be controversial by showing scantily clad teenage girls toting guns.
Actresses Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens clearly
appeared in this film to shed their squeaky-clean bubblegum images, but in fairness, Hudgens did a better job when naked pictures of her and her moo-moo were leaked online.
James Franco delivers a good performance in this film and
there's some good choices of music on the soundtrack, but aside from that it's pretentious, boring, pointless bullshit.
5/10
