James Franco
Vanessa Hudgens
Selena Gomez
Ashley Benson
Rachel Korine
Gucci Mane

Harmony Korine

94 mins.
Action, Crime, Drama
March 22, 2013

Rated R for strong sexual content, language, nudity, drug use and violence throughout. (MPAA)

“Spring Breakers” has more going for it than I thought it would. Some may view it as the unnecessary glorification of college-aged excess, another film that objectifies women, and repetitively dull. But the comment is to have no comment: a common theme for many films in 2013, including “The Wolf of Wall Street” (also in regards to excess, but excess on Wall Street, of course) and “12 Years a Slave” (obviously unrelated in theme to this film, though).

Stylistically, “Spring Breakers” is a blend of “Plus One” (an unconventional horror film about college-aged excess, also released in 2013, that uses jolts of color and editing to convey a hedonistic atmosphere) and “Friday Night Lights.” At times, the filmmakers intersperse what seems to be actual footage of spring breakers with fictional footage. These college “kids” suffer from an entitlement disorder supposedly endemic to their generation. They think that life should be like what they see portrayed in the media and that they should be able to do whatever they want in order to live that way. They’re desensitized by the usual suspects: video games, movies, Britney Spears, etc. (The Internet is conspicuously missing, though.) Reality and fantasy aren’t far apart for them.

In this film, there are four friends who want to go on Spring Break but don’t have enough money. So three of them (including Vanessa Hudgens) rob a restaurant in order to fund their excursion. The fourth friend (Selena Gomez) seems to be locked into a pattern of going to church youth group meetings and being bored with her life. She doesn’t approve of what her friends did to finance their trip, but she’s thankful for the opportunity to be who she thinks she’s supposed to be.

They meet a stranger named Alien/Al, a white underground rapper who’s played by a well-casted James Franco (who decided to be on-voice for once). Alien/Al plunges them further in the wrong direction of drugs, sex, and violence after he pays their fine for drug use and gets them out of jail. Gomez’s character, who’s the film’s supposed moral compass (I guess that’s some sort of comment, a weak one though), is the only one who leaves the group shortly after meeting Alien: She senses that he’s no good. All of the other characters in this film are completely immoral. Later on, one other girl leaves after being shot, but the other two stay behind. (Yes, you read that correctly.) They stay stuck in the dream, a word that is repeated throughout the film along with “Spring Break Forever.”

“Spring Breakers” is very explicit: It includes nudity, highly suggestive behavior, drug use, violence, and frank language. So it’s not for the faint of heart. Also, even at a little over 1 1/2 hours, it feels too long. This is because the film stagnates, especially after Alien meets the girls. But writer-director Harmony Korine (writer of “Kids,” unsurprisingly) successfully gets his satirical message across with solid filmmaking techniques. That was somewhat surprising.

“Spring Breakers” isn’t really a film to like; it’s a film that’s akin to having cold water thrown in your face. Will society ever wake up?

Verdict: OK

About: (Source: springbreakers)

Four sexy college girls plan to fund their spring break getaway by burglarizing a fast food shack. But that’s only the beginning… During a night of partying, the girls hit a roadblock when they are arrested on drug charges. Hungover and clad only in bikinis, the girls appear before a judge but are bailed out unexpectedly by Alien, an infamous local thug who takes them under his wing and leads them on the wildest Spring Break trip in history. Rough on the outside but with a soft spot inside, Alien wins over the hearts of the young Spring Breakers, and leads them on a Spring Break they never could have imagined.