Spring Breakers (2012)

Spring Breakers: Directed by Harmony Korine. With James Franco, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson. Four college girls hold up a restaurant in order to fund their spring break vacation. While partying, drinking, and taking drugs, they are arrested, only to be bailed out by a drug and arms dealer.

“Can someone explain to me why SPRING BREAKERS was in the comedy section of my local department store? I can only imagine how many people saw this movie sitting on the shelf with itu0026#39;s cover portraying Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine, and James Franco in beach-mode and thought, u0026quot;Well this movie looks like a fun time! Itu0026#39;s like THE HANGOVER for the Disney crowd!u0026quot; I am, of course, assuming that the majority of people buying movies from my local department stores are fools who arenu0026#39;t familiar with movie ratings or aware of movie reviews. And Iu0026#39;m pretty sure Iu0026#39;m right. Anyway, SPRING BREAKERS is not a comedy and, if it is, I missed something somewhere. This movie is a 90 minute hallucination and a rough one. It centers on four longtime friends: Candy (Hudgens), Brit (Benson), Cotty (Korine), and Faith (Gomez). Spring Break has arrived and their too poor to leave campus when everyone heads down south to the beaches of Florida for a week of insane debauchery. We receive our first hint that these girls arenu0026#39;t quite right when Candy, Brit, and Cotty decide to rob an all-night chicken shack for their Spring Break funds. From there, itu0026#39;s beaches, booze, and bongs as the girls party it up until their arrested in a narcotics bust when theyu0026#39;re in the wrong place at the wrong time. Enter Alien…a wannabe gangster who makes his living dealing drugs and robbing spring-breakers. He bails out the girls and enlists them to join him in business, and it all goes nuts from there.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSPRING BREAKERS isnu0026#39;t so much a film as it is an experience. Itu0026#39;s a visual journey, popping with neon color and thumping with an electronic soundtrack, that wonu0026#39;t settle with most average viewers. I had a friend that wanted to see this movie purely for the bikini-clad stars but I warned him against it because I didnu0026#39;t want to hear the eventual complaints that he had no idea what was going on. While Iu0026#39;m totally cool with helping others experience new movies and different styles of filmmaking, I know thereu0026#39;s a line and, in this instance, that line is filmmaker Harmony Korine. There is a story present in SPRING BREAKERS but itu0026#39;s done in such a unique and mind-bending fashion that I guarantee itu0026#39;ll turn a lot of people off. Personally, I enjoyed it. After I first watched it, it didnu0026#39;t take some processing on my part and multiple viewings have only made me appreciate it more. Iu0026#39;m a newbie when it comes to Harmony Korineu0026#39;s previous work. Iu0026#39;ve never seen KIDS or GUMMO but Iu0026#39;ve heard enough about them to know I need to check them out at some point. For now, SPRING BREAKERS is my first exposure to his work and itu0026#39;s got my attention. It pits a dark crime story against the vibrant energized atmosphere of the crazy college world of Spring Break. At least, the Spring Break youu0026#39;ve seen on MTV…drunk, sexually jack-up college students going totally insane.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis is a movie about evil people. Seriously, all but one person in this movie is a sociopath. The only objectively good person in the movie bails as soon as things start going sour. The most fun is watching the dark side of these girls slowly reveal themselves as the movie goes on. You start to wonder whou0026#39;s really the one being manipulated: these girls or Alien? You know theyu0026#39;re not your average college hotties early on when you see how easily crime comes to them, but you donu0026#39;t realize how cold they can be. Despite the girlsu0026#39; rapid descent into the seedier side of Spring Break, the violence isnu0026#39;t over-the-top here. The nudity is…so, you know, this really isnu0026#39;t for the actual longtime fans of people like Hudgens and Gomez. This is their attempt at breaking free from their Disney Channel roots. Hudgens had some success with her turn in SUCKER PUNCH but this secures it. Iu0026#39;m pretty sure pot-smoking and threesomes are a surefire way to bust out of that mold. Gomez doesnu0026#39;t go as nuts here but sheu0026#39;s still doing her best to be seen as an actual actress. The performances are pretty good for what they are. James Franco has been receiving a lot of praise for his role as Alien. Honestly, he annoyed me the first time I watched the movie. Horribly. But it wasnu0026#39;t his performance, itu0026#39;s just that people like the grate on my nerves. Franco does a great job here, and itu0026#39;s one of his most strange performances.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSPRING BREAKERS isnu0026#39;t for everyone and Iu0026#39;d hope most people would know what theyu0026#39;re settling in for if they decide to watch it. Itu0026#39;s a gritty, surreal film with some nice eye candy and a foreboding atmosphere playing against the Spring Break wonderland we all envision when we think of college co-eds going nuts. Itu0026#39;s a refreshing change from the usual mainstream release, even if it can be a little frustrating to watch at times.”