Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine, 2012): USA
Reviewed by Mallarie Stevens. Viewed on Amazon Instant Video.
In a surrealist’s dream of oversaturated color, shaky camerawork, and club music with too much bass, we find Faith (Selena Gomez), Brit (Ashley Benson), Candy (Vanessa Hudgens), and Cotty (Rachel Korine), the quintessential party girls of Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers (2012). True to form, the Kids (1995) writer and Gummo (1997) director brings us to the dark side of youth culture. Bored with a dank college dormitory in a sheltered Midwestern town, nihilistic, and hungry for adventure, the bikini-clad quartet become not just girls gone wild, but the ultimate good girls gone bad. Already well-known for their girl-next-door on-screen personas, Selena Gomez (of The Wizards of Waverly Place, 2007, Disney), Vanessa Hudgens (of High School Musical, 2006, Disney), and Ashley Benson (Pretty Little Liars,2010, ABC Family), along with Harmony Korine’s own wife Rachel Korine, bring both a shock value and a natural expectation of rebellious behavior to this film. But this is no ordinary teen angst rebellion.
The overdone and flimsy foundation provided by a “spring break” setting is a testament to the immaturity of Spring Breakers. It’s hard to say whether the girls themselves are total geniuses or complete morons – as soon as we are convinced of the latter, they pull a stunt which pushes them back into the former category. In either case, one thing is certain: despite age and physicality, these are not what we’d consider grown-up young women, but girls. Prancing and posing in a series of neon-colored bikinis, short shorts, and other beach fare, their affectionate bonds with one another and simple dialogue are reminiscent of more PG stories of friendship, like The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005) and Now and Then (1995). Their sexual promiscuity and reckless abandonment of any moral compasses they may have possessed further cast them as mentally and emotionally undeveloped. On the surface, Britney Spears seems a poor choice for the film’s one emotional ballad (“Everytime”, 2004), but upon closer examination, the “Not a Girl, Not yet a Woman” singer (yet another Disney good girl gone bad) is the perfect fit – combining empty vocals and brash real-life decision-making to represent the film’s own ethics-free, careless themes.
To their credit, the actresses themselves cannot be faulted for poor acting. In fact, lack of dialogue, plot development, and character depth leaves them without any true opportunity to prove their abilities one way or another. While Selena Gomez as Faith possesses the most evident conscience and therefore the greatest potential for character development, she skips out on the girls’ later (and most significant) escapades and disappears for the rest of the film, arguably leaving Ashley Benson to shine as ringleader Brit. Ultimately, however, James Franco as corn-rowed, grill-mouthed rapper/gangster Alien is the only cast member given the much-deserved chance to reach beyond surface-level acting and demonstrate real potential for character development.
All this being said, Spring Breakers is still a visual experience not to be missed. High-contrast lighting, oversaturated neon colors, unexpected angles, and camerawork that looks at times like it was actually shot by a drunken frat boy, simulate an authentic no-limits, out-of-control party environment. The monotone darkness of the girls’ school and dorm are just depressing enough to make their desperate need for escape believable. The slow movement of the getaway car as we watch the two blondes rob the local chicken joint presents us with just enough distance to remain sympathetic while becoming curious about the true nature of the crime. Further, a nonlinear plot structure with frequent flashbacks and voiceover narration that is deliberately and suggestively repetitive, are intriguing enough to keep the viewer engaged. Will these lost girls remain girls or will they grow up? In a voyeuristic glimpse at the silhouettes of the four against the backdrop of a St. Petersburg beach sunset, fantasy and reality, innocence and corruption, art and ineptitude, all blur in a film that just isn’t sure what it wants to achieve.
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