. Spring Breakers. (12A.)
Directed by Harmony Korine.
Starring Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine and James Franco. 91 mins
The American tradition of spring break is a free rolling contemporary take on the Nuremburg Rally. From across the nation the fittest hardbodies of American youth make their way to Florida to indulge in an orgy of hedonistic excess in their swimwear or less. This is then disseminated around the world as a potent and intoxicating assertion of US cultural supremacy.
Previously its Leni Riefenstahl were the Girls Gone Wild filmmakers who would roll up with their camcorders and entice them into greater sexual exhibitionism. Rather chillingly they filed for bankruptcy this year (just how wrecked is our economy if camcorder pornographers can’t make the margins work for them?) but stepping into the gap is Harmony Korine (Gummo, Trash Humpers.) While GGW are exploitative chancers whose modus operandi was pointing their cameras at vulnerable and suggestible people (inebriated women) and getting them to demean themselves, Korine is an acclaimed, “edgy” film provocateur whose modus operandi is pointing his camera at vulnerable and suggestible people (actors) and getting them to demean themselves.
The difference is primarily production values. Spring Breakers is beautifully filmed, slickly edited and has a lovely Cliff Martinez (Solaris, Drive) score. There is a plot but the edges has been smoothed down so instead of the usually choppy narratives up and down, it all glides dreamily past as it if were a single idle erotic fantasy unfurling before us. Four girls are stuck in a boring, cold northern college, dreaming of escaping to Florida. In lectures on the civil right movement they entertain themselves by drawing penises. When they finally make it south their revelry takes a sinister turn when they meet up with rapper/ gangster Alien, played with wigged out fury by Franco sporting Snoop Dogg braided hair.
It isn’t exactly subtle. The sole religious character (Gomez) is called Faith; psyching themselves up to commit a crime one of them utters the line “Just imagine it’s a videogame;” Franco leaps around amongst his money and weapons gleefully shouting, “look at all my s***” and the sound of a gun being cocked is heard repeatedly on the soundtrack. But this is spring break; subtlety wouldn't be able to hack it and would probably just get drunk and stoned and end spewing up in a ditch, no use to anyone. This is a cautionary porno fantasy. It has boobs and bums and beer and bongs and bikinis and automatic weaponry and a despairing take on American culture. It leaves you feeling soiled, despairing and exhilarated.
The casting of two former Disney princesses, Gomez and Hudgen, is an inspired gimmick. It shows that nobody is pure, everybody will be corrupted. Our future hell is not a boot stamping down on a human face forever; it is a booty shake gangsta rap video that embraces the whole world.
Directed by Harmony Korine.
Starring Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine and James Franco. 91 mins
The American tradition of spring break is a free rolling contemporary take on the Nuremburg Rally. From across the nation the fittest hardbodies of American youth make their way to Florida to indulge in an orgy of hedonistic excess in their swimwear or less. This is then disseminated around the world as a potent and intoxicating assertion of US cultural supremacy.
Previously its Leni Riefenstahl were the Girls Gone Wild filmmakers who would roll up with their camcorders and entice them into greater sexual exhibitionism. Rather chillingly they filed for bankruptcy this year (just how wrecked is our economy if camcorder pornographers can’t make the margins work for them?) but stepping into the gap is Harmony Korine (Gummo, Trash Humpers.) While GGW are exploitative chancers whose modus operandi was pointing their cameras at vulnerable and suggestible people (inebriated women) and getting them to demean themselves, Korine is an acclaimed, “edgy” film provocateur whose modus operandi is pointing his camera at vulnerable and suggestible people (actors) and getting them to demean themselves.
The difference is primarily production values. Spring Breakers is beautifully filmed, slickly edited and has a lovely Cliff Martinez (Solaris, Drive) score. There is a plot but the edges has been smoothed down so instead of the usually choppy narratives up and down, it all glides dreamily past as it if were a single idle erotic fantasy unfurling before us. Four girls are stuck in a boring, cold northern college, dreaming of escaping to Florida. In lectures on the civil right movement they entertain themselves by drawing penises. When they finally make it south their revelry takes a sinister turn when they meet up with rapper/ gangster Alien, played with wigged out fury by Franco sporting Snoop Dogg braided hair.
It isn’t exactly subtle. The sole religious character (Gomez) is called Faith; psyching themselves up to commit a crime one of them utters the line “Just imagine it’s a videogame;” Franco leaps around amongst his money and weapons gleefully shouting, “look at all my s***” and the sound of a gun being cocked is heard repeatedly on the soundtrack. But this is spring break; subtlety wouldn't be able to hack it and would probably just get drunk and stoned and end spewing up in a ditch, no use to anyone. This is a cautionary porno fantasy. It has boobs and bums and beer and bongs and bikinis and automatic weaponry and a despairing take on American culture. It leaves you feeling soiled, despairing and exhilarated.
The casting of two former Disney princesses, Gomez and Hudgen, is an inspired gimmick. It shows that nobody is pure, everybody will be corrupted. Our future hell is not a boot stamping down on a human face forever; it is a booty shake gangsta rap video that embraces the whole world.
