Viewed in
2014
Formats
HDTV
Premise
Four girls go to Florida for spring break, and run into trouble.
Loved
James Franco, great EDM, visual style.
Liked
Interesting, uncomfortable themes.
Disliked
Implausibility.
Thoughts
It would be easy to label this as "all style, no substance", but I thought there was some genuinely interesting, albeit failed substance.
I'm not a Franco-phile, but I'm definitely an above-average fan. Suffice to say, his "look at my $#^!" speech was one of the funniest, insane, entrancing scenes of the year. As a whole, he was a hurricane presence throughout.
The rest of the females, including "the leads", on the other hand weren't so memorable. Selena Gomez stood out slightly, but I couldn't tell the three blondes apart. Perhaps that was on purpose. Had I been a fan of Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, and wherever the other blondes came from, I guess I was supposed to be shocked by their characters' unwholesome spring break antics.
Visually and aurally, it was a sensory assault, but in a good way. The film overflowed with great EDM (electronic-dance music, for you unhip squares), especially bass-blasting flavor-of-the-decade dubstep. Director Harmony Korine's visual flair was top-notch, full of slow-motion shots of youthful debauchery and chaotic partying. Every frame was gorgeously shot and colored.
The music video experiences and Franco's internal monologs captured a time and place for our current (privileged) youth. Not just in terms of music and ideas of party. You could see the themes of materialism, rich white kids, and their naivety about what's important in the world.
While these themes were interesting and valid, I don't think they succeeded in exploring them in a meaningful way. They wax poetically, but never really dive deeper into consequences. And without consequences, it made the film's biggest flaw abundantly clear: the implausibility. I found it very difficult to believe these short-sighted teens could get away with running away for spring break, do a bunch of bad stuff, and hang with a shady drug dealer for an extended period. The ending itself was laughably incredulous. Perhaps the movie's shallowness was a reflection on the characters' shallowness?
I didn't buy into the controversies of Spring Breakers. I didn't think it was exploitive, nor was it glorifying booze, drugs, guns, crime, promiscuity, and excess. On the other hand, I didn't think it succeeded in being a "voice of a generation" type of movie either. It perfectly snapshotted the feelings for an American youth subculture through EDM and stylish cinematography and James Franco's greatness, but the themes only went skin deep.
