As I said earlier
this week, you should never a judge a movie before seeing it. There have been
plenty of times when a movie that looks bad has won me over, and vice versa.
Judging by the ad campaign, Spring
Breakers looks like any typical drunken, mind-numbing, college “coming of
age” movie; but in honesty Spring
Breakers belongs more in the art house than the frat house.
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| Like it or hate it, this movie will give you something to talk about. |
Director Harmony Korine (Kids, Gummo, Trash Humpers) has a clear vision and everything on
screen is a clear choice. At times there is nothing more than amateur porn onscreen,
but in the very next moment flips the tables and Korine proves to be an
avant-garde filmmaker. Korine aims to tell the story through the eyes of
today’s youth, and it’s clear that the story and characters find nothing wrong
with happens in the film nor do they judge their own circumstance. Speaking of,
it’s really hard to not hold the dicey subject matter against this film, but
after having a while to sit on Spring
Breakers, I can see that it was needed to tell Korine’s story. As blunt and
in-your-face as this film is, I don’t think you could have made it any other
way. Without Korine filming “Spring Break” in a very raw, dirty way, this film
would have been every cliché frat house film that it ridicules. In the film,
Korine attacks all the things that his characters and “target” audience hold
dear - a common thing among popular entertainment currently. Korine assumes (correctly)
that most members of his audience will not even realize that their way of life
is being attacked, instead audience members see Spring Breakers as glorifying their dreams. After leaving the
theatre, I overheard the conversation of three college-age (I am assuming)
girls and they were making a vow to live that movie next spring break… goodness
help the youth of America.
After what turned into a bonus 6th reason to
see the film, let’s jump into my actual top five reasons why Spring Breakers is the first must-see
film of 2013.
5. Are
We Really Living the American Dream?
Korine has a clear visual style, and film is full of Neon
Candy Colored lights, clothes, settings, and more. The backdrop of this film is
meant to look like a bright dream - which is highlighted by Franco’s character ‘Alien’
claiming how spring break is “The dream y’all, the American dream y’all.” With
that said, the world created in Spring Breakers
a highly sexualized male-fantasy version of the American dream. There is not a
woman in the film who is not used as sex object, including the “heroines” of
the film, who we are to believe are in control the entire time. What kind of
dream are we living? Everything above, from candy-colors to rampant drug and
alcohol use, are all used to give the characters a temporary high in their never-ending
search for the American Dream. Really it leaves them (and the audience) with a
feeling of emptiness and longing that is harmful to the characters and the film
while being exactly what the film needs and what Korine has intended.
4. Girls
Gone Wild… No… Wait, sorry… Stupid. Girls Gone Stupid
One of my main issues with this film is the first act. Three
of the four main characters are almost completely indistinguishable from each
other. They are shallow, full of clichés, and impossible to tell apart whether they’re
masked or not. The only one to distinguish herself is Faith. Yes, her character
is named Faith because she is a good girl who has is questioning her faith… for
all the things that Spring Breakers is,
subtle is not one of them. Back on track here, Faith (played by Selena Gomez) is
the character that goes to spring break in a search for self and quickly finds (through
a ton of breathy voiceovers) that she has found her own paradise. She is
finding who she is and never wants to leave. As the film continues, our
characters get into trouble and her voiceovers turns into whining about how their
trip wasn’t supposed to end like this and that they don’t deserve what has happened
to them (yes it is supposed to end like this and yes you do). It is at this
moment that she realizes that even the deepest of our four main characters is
nothing more than a vapid, shallow, cardboard cutout walking through life doing
what you’re “supposed to” and society says is acceptable.
My second major issue is this, (and it’s in the trailers,
so no spoiler intended) within the first 10 minutes Candy, Brit, and Cotty (the
other three girls) rob a local Chicken Shack to get enough money for spring
break in Florida. Their reason for doing this? THEY WERE BORED!!! Are you
kidding me? This is motivation enough to rob a Chicken Shack? The characters
constantly whine about seeing the same thing every day, doing the same thing
all the time, they need to get out… SO WORK FOR IT! You whiney little… It was
at this moment in theater that I realized I was never going to root for these
characters, and in fact started to actively root for them to keep making
terrible life choices. That may be why I love Franco’s character so much in
this film (but we’ll get there). Why are these three girls even in college? Did
mommy and daddy pay for you to be there? If your only way to get what you want
is to steal it, then why would I believe that you have what it takes to succeed
at anything in life, especially anything that takes hard work. This honestly
was why I hated of the first third of this film, but these characters get what
coming to them, some learn from it others don’t. That’s where it gets
interesting.
3. Hell
on Earth
Faith claims at one point that she has found her
paradise, her Garden of Eden. This, coupled with the backdrop of heaven on
earth, serves as a great contrast to an environment filled with heavy doses of
sex, drugs, a total disregard of the future, and a life of anonymous sin. This
contrast of Heaven and Hell drives home the point that someone’s heaven is someone
else’s hell. Shots linger too long on glassy-eyed wasted college students who
are using scary amounts of drugs and alcohol. Spirng Breakers looks at the dark side of films like Superbad, 21 and Over, and other college party films. It shines a light and
shows the audience that this is what they look like, this is how they act, then
asks the question: is this how you want to turn out? Would you make the easier
choice of staying in Hell or would you work to make your way toward Heaven? One
character choses the latter and gives us the most inspired, gripping scene of
the film.
2.
James Franco is the Reason to see Spring
Breakers
I have a love/hate relationship with James Franco. I’ve
met the guy, and let’s just say he wasn’t the most pleasant person, but he also
wasn’t terrible. But he is an amazing actor when he cares about the project –
and oh my goodness he cares about Alien. Franco is hands-down the reason to see
this film. He gives a performance that is crazy good and full of depth, finds
different levels within the character, and is honest in every moment. Alien is
a character that wants to be dangerous, but he never is. His struggle makes him
the most fascinating character of the film. From the first time I saw him on
screen, I wanted the movie to be about him. This is easily the best performance
of the year so far, but by the time award season rolls around it will be all
but forgotten. Franco begs to seen in this film and should not be missed. A
quick side on Korine: he gets fantastic performances out of all of his actors. With
two Disney stars looking to break their image in this film, Korine manages to
get us to forget who we’re watching and focus on the characters. This may be
the best work that any of these former Disney stars will do, and for that I
give a tip of my hat to Korine to know how to get the best out of his actors.
1. We
Are… We Were The Youth of the Nation
For time immemorial, college kids have been flocking to
Florida or California beaches to escape from life and “get stupid” for a couple
of days. It’s something that is accepted as part of life. I never did it, but
then again I’m weird because I rarely drink, and have never tried a cigarette,
weed, or any other drug for that matter. In fact, I’m allergic to weed, so
that’s something I’ll never (nor would I want to) try. So this entire concept
is foreign to me, watching people make the choice to go somewhere and just
forget all about life by actually forgetting their life for a few days is just
not something I’d choose to do (of course I’ve been on vacation – we all need
one – but I prefer to remember them. For the record my ideal vacation spot is
anywhere with Disney in the title). That said, I came into Spring Breakers wanting to judge the characters for their choices and
left with a whole new set of questions. The film challenges us to think about
what we call ‘Spring Break.’ Is this the American Dream? The film asks us the
questions: where have we gone as a society by allowing it? Why do need to
escape from life to this? What’s the end of the slippery slope? They answer this
question with a story arc that starts as party film and turns to a crazy crime
story without blinking an eye. Spring
Breakers is not a lecture, it’s not cautionary tale, nor is it an endorsement,
it makes you think about where we are and what we did to get here. It will
frustrate parents as much as it will tempt and scare teens. Korine allows his
characters to fall off the cliff because that’s where society has led them, he
pulls no punches.
In the end Spring
Breakers is equal parts disgusting, stupid, thrilling, compassionate (at
least for Alien), and thought provoking. It forces us to see the nightmares in
front of us through the lenses of generations’ reckless dreamers. It’s never
perfect, but always provocative and simply put Spring Breakers begs to be seen.
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