Spring Breakers

First and foremost this is a film of excess.  The drinking, drug taking, boasting and everything else is plentiful.  This goes for the production as well.  Many scenes, shots, whole portions of dialogue, etc. are recurrent.  The repetitive nature of the girls partying mirrors the repetitive filmmaking and editing (I have to give credit to a friend of mine that pointed part of this out to me).

This movie is made up of contradictions as well.  It’s put together in a very arty way with almost constant montages and characters talking over them in a real serious tone.  At the same time they show out of control spring break parties and Alien (James Franco) showing off all of his guns and wealth which seems to undercut the gravity of the many monologues.  So the entire thing feels pretentious on one level but the subject material and the way it’s portrayed is so silly that it takes a bunch of that pompous edge off.  And of course, partying is supposed to be a fun thing but this picture makes it feel not fun, like I would never want to witness let alone experience any of the disgusting parties shown here.   

What’s weird though is the lead girls (Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine) aren’t likable but I wanted to see them get away from Alien and make it out of spring break alive anyway.  For all the dumb and bad shit that these broads do I still didn’t want to see them get hurt, or at least killed.

Alien on the other hand I didn’t have that connection with.  He’s certainly a wacky character and kinda entertaining but he’s also creepy as a motherfucker.  The constant praising of the girls, the endless bragging about how rich he is, the sly smiling, it’s all so cringe inducing yet like a car crash I can’t look away.     

The movie may present an impression that it’s deep but I’m not buying it.  I’m pretty sure there isn’t a whole lot below the surface.  It’s gross, loud and gaudy as all hell.  This might be the gaudiest film I’ve ever seen. 

It’s also intense.  Not only is it head shaking how much relentless partying these kids do but there are so many slow motion shots of this shit and often times in bright vivid colors.  It’s an absolutely beautiful picture to look at with each scene presenting a different color palate.    

Just to throw one more contradiction in here, the film may look tacky and maybe even amateurish at first but if you take a step back it was really executed very well.  Of course the slow motion shot of beer being poured on a set of jiggling tits is somewhat outlandish but the scene where the girls rob the diner and it’s all done in one long take inside the getaway car as it’s circling the building is not only fucking badass but clever filmmaking.  Harmony Korine (Gummo) definitely knows what he’s doing.  There’s too much technically proficient and competent story telling shit in here to put this in the so bad it’s good category.     

“Spring Break, spring break forever.”  Actually that shit don’t last forever.  In fact it looks like a short lived time in your life no matter how you slice it; either you get your fill of partying or you get murdered.    

There’s a part of me that liked this quite a bit but all the alcohol guzzling, weed smoking, coke snorting and gun toting got tiring after a while.  Sure I get it, it’s spring break where this is all you do day in and day out.  But man it definitely starts to grate on you.  One friend that I saw this with said he doesn’t think he could ever see it again.  As for me, I think I’ll eventually re-up on it.  I mean not for a long time but I’ll get there.

This reminds me, I don’t have any plans for spring break next year.  Hmm…