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SHRPREENG BRAAKE! Review of Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers
The premiere of Spring Breakers was a little bit of Disney, a lot of Hollywood and onscreen drug fueled orgies interspliced with scenes of chicks (really young looking chicks) doing bad things.
Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers brings us the friendship of four young girls (played by Selena Gomez, Rachel Korine, Ashley Benson and Vanessa Hudgens) who find themselves too broke to afford a trip to Florida for Spring Break!
In order to get the money, the girls (sans Gomez) "rob the chicken shack." Yes, they rob the hell out of that chicken shack, and they enjoy every second of it. Wielding guns before unsuspecting patrons, asking them if they want to die tonight... Hudgen's character seems gun-obsessed, Benson's character seems unphased, and Gomez... she's as sweet as ever, with just the amount of rebellion a teenage girl in college ought to have.
Perhaps her prayer sessions make her sweeter, or perhaps Korine wants us to hate her. Gomez' Faith is a buzzkill. She's the weak link. She doesn't belong rolling with the chicks who just robbed the chicken shack. The film maker exiles Faith fairly early on in the film, shortly after they meet Franco's Alien. Her best friends stroke her hair and tell her to stay... but you know... I don't think they really care whether she stays or whether she goes.
Franco is good as Alien, but there isn't really the opportunity to be anything more. The movie isn't about the actors. It's about the film making, the music, and Spring Break! The partying does what dialogue is supposed to, and the music is as loud and thumping as you might find anywhere there is alcohol and young people.
Somehow, it really works as a medium here. If we really got to know these chicks, would it have been Spring Break at all?
Then there were two, as one of the girls (I won't say which) gets shot in the arm. The same spot you'd probably display your Mickey Mouse band-aid after a booster shot.
The gore is minimal in the film and it really isn't the point. The point is that two of our ladies really don't give a f*%& and the director proves that to us with a thrilling finale.
On the whole, the film lacks any distinct personality. But then again, wouldn't you say the same for the hoards of drunk college aged kids on Spring Break?
On the whole, I see Vanessa Hudgens as the breakout role in the film, but I think I have an affinity for bad girls in bikinis. See it if you want to see pretty young girls play with guns. If you're looking for a classic narrative or a plot, you're barking up the wrong beach.
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| (From right) Selena Gomez, Rachel Korine, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Benson |
Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers brings us the friendship of four young girls (played by Selena Gomez, Rachel Korine, Ashley Benson and Vanessa Hudgens) who find themselves too broke to afford a trip to Florida for Spring Break!
In order to get the money, the girls (sans Gomez) "rob the chicken shack." Yes, they rob the hell out of that chicken shack, and they enjoy every second of it. Wielding guns before unsuspecting patrons, asking them if they want to die tonight... Hudgen's character seems gun-obsessed, Benson's character seems unphased, and Gomez... she's as sweet as ever, with just the amount of rebellion a teenage girl in college ought to have.
Perhaps her prayer sessions make her sweeter, or perhaps Korine wants us to hate her. Gomez' Faith is a buzzkill. She's the weak link. She doesn't belong rolling with the chicks who just robbed the chicken shack. The film maker exiles Faith fairly early on in the film, shortly after they meet Franco's Alien. Her best friends stroke her hair and tell her to stay... but you know... I don't think they really care whether she stays or whether she goes.
Franco is good as Alien, but there isn't really the opportunity to be anything more. The movie isn't about the actors. It's about the film making, the music, and Spring Break! The partying does what dialogue is supposed to, and the music is as loud and thumping as you might find anywhere there is alcohol and young people.
Somehow, it really works as a medium here. If we really got to know these chicks, would it have been Spring Break at all?
Then there were two, as one of the girls (I won't say which) gets shot in the arm. The same spot you'd probably display your Mickey Mouse band-aid after a booster shot.
The gore is minimal in the film and it really isn't the point. The point is that two of our ladies really don't give a f*%& and the director proves that to us with a thrilling finale.
On the whole, the film lacks any distinct personality. But then again, wouldn't you say the same for the hoards of drunk college aged kids on Spring Break?
On the whole, I see Vanessa Hudgens as the breakout role in the film, but I think I have an affinity for bad girls in bikinis. See it if you want to see pretty young girls play with guns. If you're looking for a classic narrative or a plot, you're barking up the wrong beach.
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