(USA, 94 min.)
Written and directed by Harmony Korine
Starring: James Franco, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgins, Ashley
Benson, Rachel Korine.
The opening scene of Spring
Breakers introduces a no-holds-barred satire. A group of rambunctious
college students parties it up on the beach of some anonymous tropical
paradise. Gratuitous tit shot upon gratuitous tit shot comes together to form a
double-D montage of juvenile excess. Boobs jiggle and booties bounce. Frat boys
smack their bitches in the sand. They whip out their beer bottles and let the
beach bunnies get drunk on the Bud Lite that pours their phallic fountains.
These kids are the future of America; hence, America is fucked. Spring Breakers astutely makes its point
within this scintillating prelude: it’s hard to grow up when you’re white and
privileged.
Spring Breakers
never excels beyond its opening statement. What follow are ninety-odd minutes
of ironic debauchery as a quartet of sexy co-eds (Selena Gomez, Vanessa
Hudgins, Ashley Benson and Rachel Korine) let loose south of the border. The
girls, burdened by their boredom with campus life, decide to knock off a fast
food joint so that the work of people less privileged than themselves can pay
for their hedonistic holiday. Korine has lots of fun satirizing these spoiled
brats as they go from one binge-drinking party to another, but Spring Breakers plods on a meandering
loop as the girls, especially Faith (Gomez), try to find themselves amongst the
douchebags and libertines celebrating spring break. The surreal, repetitive odyssey
is like a bad case of the spins or a parent’s worst nightmare.
A lot of the thrill relies on the novelty of seeing some of
the stars playing against type. Some of the young actresses, however, can’t
carry a film by themselves, although Spring
Breakers does improve considerably once Selena Gomez exits the picture. James
Franco, on the other hand, brings Spring
Breakers up to a whole new level with his hilariously ‘out there’ performance
as a life-long spring breaker cum surfer-thug named Alien. Playing the gangsta
with cornrows and a trailer-trash accent, Franco is very funny here. It’s
probably his best work since 127 Hours.
His put-on inflections on lines like “Look at all ma’ shiiit” and “sHorts, ah
got sHorts… ev’ry diff’rent colour” brought
in-house quoting from the rowdy audience. Spring
Breakers is clearly the kind of film that’s either going to become an
instant favourite or grow considerably more irritating as it goes along.
Franco’s epic performance almost makes the idiosyncratic
kookiness of Spring Breakers work. The
first time he delivers his already classic line “Sprang brayyyyhk, sprang brayhk fo’eva!”, Spring Breakers seems like it’s going to be one non-stop party with
a purpose. When Korine repeats the line about a dozen times on the soundtrack,
however, Spring Breakers feels like
an unwelcome guest that just won’t leave. I really wanted to go along for the
trippy ride of Spring Breakers, especially
when Franco leads his posse of gun-totin’ bitches in a group serenade of
Britney Spears’ “Everytime,” but the film never really comes together. It’s too
tedious and uneven to embrace. Watching an hour-and-a-half of sordid behaviour
isn’t all that fun when it’s soaked more in pretension than in tequila.
Korine even does a heavy bit of moralizing with his
exaggerated satire. Spring Breakers acts
all rebellious, but it actually conveys a conservative and sanctimonious
portrait of alienated youth. Spring
Breakers is a bunch of high-falutin’ finger-waving that masquerades as an unruly
middle finger. The film presents all the young adults who try to exit the pleasure-seeking
rampage as whiny and weak. Faith, for example, doesn’t want to become one of
Alien’s molls and the film portrays her as a shrill quitter, as someone not cut
out for Neverland. Alien’s glorified mob of bikini-clad Barbies, who pack heat
and get it on in the pool, comes across as a pair of tragic heroines.
Spring Breakers tries
to be a gonzo all-out rager, but it results in something like an annoying
hipster noir. The film doesn’t offer anything that wasn’t already revealed in,
say, The Real Cancun, but while the
2003 “documentary” was universally trashed, Spring
Breakers gets a round of cheers if one is willing to overlook sloppy
craftsmanship, bad acting, and meandering lecturing. One could also claim
intentionality on this entire opus of self-indulgence, but The Real Cancun was exactly the kind of co-ed decadence it wanted
to be and it was rightfully panned.
The party’s over. Grow up. See something else.
Rating: ★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Spring Breakers is currently playing in Ottawa at World Exchange
Empire 7 and Empire Kanata and in Toronto at Cineplex Yonge and Dundas.
