Paul O Reviews Spring Breakers
Spring Breakers
Spring Breakers is the kind of film that is likely to give many fits of hyperbole. That’s how it sits with me. It is likely to be a love/hate affair for everyone.
Harmony Korine is a fearless film maker who is likely to leave many viewers uncomfortable. He started as the screenwriter for Larry Clark’s Kids. He went on to direct films that confused many while winning some awards and some ardent followers like Werner Herzog.
It stars James Franco and a trio of teen queens, Selena Gomez (Wizards of Waverly Place), Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical), and Ashley Benson (Pretty Little Liars).
Gomez made a statement on the press tour that her hard core fans should stay away. Wow!
The Franco connection works well because we make a journey from a place like Kansas to a magical kingdom but in this case the Sunshine Skyway leads to the gates of Hell; Saint Petersburg, Florida.
The film plays like a dream on drugs. It could be an update of Where The Girls Are or Beach Blanket Bingo. It samples from many sources….part Miami Vice, The Great Gatsby, Natural Born Killers, True Romance, Thelma and Louise and Risky Business.
Many will love it. Many will be disgusted. Some will find it ridiculous. Some will find it aimless. They will all be right. The film is slyly designed to subversively appeal to it’s core audience while likely generating outrage from those that don’t get it.
No one could could ever claim that Korine was ever a hack or a sellout. His output has been clearly passionate and defiantly unconventional. In this case the times may be catching up with him. If anything, the depravity of society is not as funny and entertaining as it is here.
Like Kids, Spring Breakers is a dispassionate look at the puberty rites of our tribe. It does not judge. Many would say it condones behavior that is becoming increasingly demeaning to all involved. I actually do not mean to judge myself. I understand that being demeaned sometimes brings great pleasure. I’m sure many people would not be so generous.
The title is an excellent one because we all know what that means and this film delivers. It starts with all the beach craziness. There is plenty of nudity and much sexuality implied (though for the most part it avoids excessive fornication).
Gomez is the good girl in this film and I will say to all her fans, “Go ahead and go if you can get your parents to take you to an R-rated movie”. Hudgens and Benson are definitely more the little devils here.
The film is both obvious fantasy yet much more real than most Hollywood youth films. It is dark tragedy yet broadly funny. Franco has risen another notch on the ladder to success with a fantastically
mercurial performance yet he seems to be laughing his way through it.
He’s a sweetheart and a bad boy. He’s a rapper and a dealer. He’s euphoric and suicidal.
Hyperbole has kicked in.
No one will leave the theater without an opinion. Everyone will love it or hate it. I love that people will love it or hate it because it is part of Korine’s slow series of attempts to shake up the world in his own small way. It is and art film that plays like a blockbuster entertainment. Again, I love it. We get many blockbuster films that have no interest in art. We have many art films that have no interest in entertaining us. Spring Breakers is part of a rare breed. In this case, It’s more entertainment than art, but I’ll take it. I can’t wait to take any number of unsuspecting parents to watch their reactions.
Forgive me for taking pleasure in their pain.
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