Movie Review: Spring Breakers

Despite the fact that I hadn't previously seen any of his work, I had heard a lot about the abstract wackiness of the films of writer/director Harmony Korine. He's made a name for himself on the independent film circuit as a polarizing director whose films leave viewers on either side of the spectrum with absolutely no in-between. After gaining my first exposure to his work with Spring Breakers, I can confirm everything I'd heard about Korine's films was correct.

Spring Breakers is a fucking trip to watch. The film just puts you in a brain-melting trance for an hour and a half. Parts of it are brilliant, parts of it are awful, all of it is captivating. This is a movie all about the excess of the party culture in the United States. Gratuitous nudity, sex, drugs, and violence are all on display behind a pumping electronic soundtrack from composer Cliff Martinez (Drive) and dubstep artist Skrillex are on all display, but don't let that fool you: this is a serious piece of social commentary. It's not always the easiest film to watch (one scene in particular involving Ashley Benson, Vanessa Hudgens, James Franco and two pistols will haunt me for the rest of my life,) but that's exactly what Korine intended. Korine wants to overwhelm the viewer with shocking images, non-linear storytelling and repeated dialogue all while brilliantly skewering the attitudes and behavior of young adults in America. Save for the crazy shootout finale (which is a fitting, over-the-top ending to a film that is all about excess,) just about everything is scarily dead-on about the attitude of young adults in this country. I'm almost 21 myself and while I don't share the love of exorbitant partying that is portrayed in this film, but a lot of people my age absolutely do. It's genuinely terrifying and though this film seems like its ridiculous at times, it's largely rooted in truth. Plenty of people put the hard-partying lifestyle of heavy drinking, lethal drug use, and other reckless behavior ahead of everything else and this film captures just how wrong and dangerous that attitude is. A lot of audiences are going to write this film off as just as a pointless film with no story that borderlines on porn or be disappointed that it portrays partying in such an unglamorous light, but there's far more to Spring Breakers than meets the eye. For the most part the abstract nature and intensity of the film overshadows the actors, but James Franco's role as rapper/drug mogul Alien is nothing short of priceless. When Alien shows up, the film escalates from slightly crazy to absolutely bonkers. Franco hits all the right notes and matches the over-the-top tone of the film perfectly. I'm still trying to fully process Spring Breakers (it will probably take multiple viewings for me to form a firm opinion on it) due to how visceral and strange it was. One thing is for sure though, no matter what your opinion is on Spring Breakers, no film this year will garner strong reactions from audiences. Spring Breakers is far from perfect, but it's a hypnotic film that will be embedded deep in my brain for a long time.

3/5 Stars