Review: Spring Breakers

A24

Why does anyone watch something like Spring Breakers? In my case, utterly depraved curiosity and/or necessity. Those of you who know of Harmony Korine (writer of the notorious Kids at the age of 19, no less) know that anytime he makes something it is generally considered borderline offensive, cutting-edge, and sometimes brilliant at the same time depending on who you're talking to. Spring Breakers is his second director/writer feature after 2009's Trash Humpers, which I've been told is exactly what the title suggests. Needless to say, James Franco sporting a Riff-Raff inspired persona, corn-roes and all, accompanied by four actresses formerly associated with harmless, Disney-type child's fair taking on the roles of scantily clad, booze and drug soaked college students was bound to cause some waves all over the interweb and pop culture social stratosphere (that was a terribly long and I'm sure grammatically incorrect sentence but who cares SPRING BREAK 4EVER). 

And once it came out, I don't think anyone was expecting the generally favorable reviews it received. Still, I had friends from film classes who loved it and some who hated it, and judging by their different tastes in film, I began to develop a pretty good idea of what to expect. And after having Spring Breakers in my possession for a number of weeks and actively choosing to watch other things instead, I finally forced myself to watch it after my roommate moved out and took the router with him leaving me stranded without the internet and without a choice.

A24

The result being I was surprised. I was going to write "pleasantly surprised" in there, but that wouldn't be accurate to the viewing experience. Spring Breakers falls into that category of films that I'd call an assault on the senses. Definitely not to the extent of some films or filmmakers', but enough that the film revolves around images and sound rather than cause and effect. In many ways, it's more of a MTV, musical montage than anything else. The first 5 or so minutes of the film are slow-mo shots of college kids partying on some beach somewhere set to dub-step with top-less girls sucking on pop-sicles, chugging beer bongs, and guys pouring every type of alcohol all over them and themselves. It's loud, saturated, and obnoxious, but at the same time it's undeniably mesmerizing and ironic. Korine knows his audience, that's for sure. As someone who's never been into what MTV and the hip-hop culture is today (writing that sentence makes me feel like an out of touch old person), I'm afraid much of what Korine was trying to do in this movie might have been lost on me. Still, there's a few things that I found noteworthy about the style and substance.

A24

From the beginning montage, it's clear that Korine isn't working with a traditional story-line. Introductions to the four girls is put together via jump cuts and other editing tactics that make chronology ambiguous, but obviously hints at events to come. And as with the montage at the beginning, Korine relies heavily upon the musical score (by Cliff Martinez and Skrillex) and sound effects (specifically gun locking and cocking noises) to translate a mood and provide further hints to future events. Still, everything remains fixed in the art film genre of ambiguous motivations and stays away from simple cause and effect. For instance, the girls (besides Selena Gomez's Faith who is more naive) are obviously wild and desperate to have fun, but it still isn't entirely clear why they can so easily go rob a store for the extra money they need to travel down to California for spring break. Then again, Korine mimics this behavior in his editing and cinematography which feels impulsive, and the colorful, saturated images reflect the drug use, drinking, and general partying mayhem. The overall style, tone, and look of everything flows very well and signals that there's a smarter intention behind everything despite the actual content suggesting otherwise.

So the technical side of things is good, but what about the raison d'etre? When it comes down to it, Korine is setting up an obvious dichotomy between reality and play. One might even say between reality and reality-TV, in a way. Both the girls (Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine) and "Alien" (James Franco) demonstrate behavior and attitudes that treat reality and what they do as if it isn't real. Before and during the robbery sequence at the beginning, the girls tell themselves over and over "just pretend it's a video game, like you're in a fucking movie." Alien goes on and on about being a rapper and real gangster with all of his "sheeyit" in a highly entertaining soliloquy at his house with guns and money covering his room, but most of the time we just see him clubbing, driving around in his ridiculous car (see: first photo), and just playing the part without any real violence. Sure, there's a part where he and the girls rob and beat up some college kids in a hotel, but it's obviously child's play and a joke for them. 

A24

In each case, Alien and the girls are clearly living in a reality modeled on people and ideas that aren't really real. Moreover, the character of Alien is based on the rapper Riff Raff and the girls apparently were inspired by Brittany Spears in the way they act. There is even a musical montage in the middle set to a Spears song that's probably one of the best parts of the movie, actually. In this way, the inspiration for these characters are basically actors themselves in how they have created personas for their fans and business. So, when it comes down to it, the film spirals into unexpected darkness and nihilism at the root of everything Alien and the girls do. None of them actually care about each other or anyone else. As long as they're personally having a good time, who cares? Only when things begin to feel real and Alien's rival, Archie (Gucci Mane), threatens him and the girls does Alien begin to be nervous and have second guesses. I won't give away any more than that because the ending, although I saw it coming, is pretty ridiculous. 

Ultimately, Spring Breakers functions as a criticism of the "American dream" Alien thinks he's achieved: partying, having money to buy whatever you want, and thinking you deserve it. Korine effectively uses the repetition of images and sequences of partying to tire and annoy the viewer. And I definitely recognize that Korine has blown much of the content out of proportion, but he's done so to complete the irony and ridiculousness of the characters. In the end, the kind of behavior exhibited in the movie is meant to end after spring break, but as Alien and the girls say "spring break! spring break fo eva!" Um, no thanks.