Spring Breakers
Rating – 3.5/4
*SPOILERS*
With bikini-clad girls, music by Skrillex, beach parties, sex, crime, and drugs, Spring Breakers is a film that could be seen as a typical, raunchy, exploitation film but underneath it all, there’s something a bit more. It might seem all about breaking free and finding yourself, and having fun, but what if it’s all just an image? You might fall into uncharted territory that only causes pain and suffering, maybe even death. And sometimes, you won’t see it coming.
Directed by Harmony Korine and starring Selena Gomez, Rachel Korine, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, and James Franco, Spring Breakers follows the lives of four college girls, innocent Faith (Gomez), promiscuous Cotty (Korine), and party animals Brit (Benson) and Candy (Hudgens), during the week of spring break. Desperate to go on vacation, they decide to rob a restaurant and after securing the money, they head to Florida.
In Florida, spring break is everything they’ve dreamed of. Parties, alcohol, drugs, sex, and freedom. But their parties literally come crashing down on them when they are busted by the police and imprisoned. However, a mysterious man named Alien (Franco) bails them out and introduces them to his life of crime and drug dealing. And from there, the whole story falls apart. But that’s the point.
Spring Breakers is almost like a music video, almost every scene being filled with florescent imagery or lights, accompanied by upbeat music. It’s almost psychedelic in its presentation, trying to give us the illusion that all is well with partying and drugs. But underneath it all, it shows the ugliness and carelessness of people and how they get tricked by an illusion. The girls think spring break will be amazing and how they “find themselves” but end up in legal trouble. They get involved with Alien and think they have a new life, but end up in a world of murder and drugs instead. And even Alien lampshades this when he describes his idol as Tony Montana from Scarface and wishes to be like him. And like Tony, Alien is eventually brought down by his life of crime. And for the girls, they also suffer the consequences, both mentally and physically. Shootings, gang violence, and drugs can definitely do that to you.
Spring Breakers isn’t a typical film. It forgoes a standard structure and creates it's own world that we can live in. What it lacks in both characters and plot is made up in the experiences. You’re in the moment. You’re with all the girls, and the booze, and the prettiness, as well as the ugliness. It brings you into a world of fun and excitement but also shows that too much is a bad thing.
“Spring break forever, bitches!!!”
