Review: Spring Breakers
If you are at all familiar with Spring Breakers director Harmony Korine’s work prior to this movie, then you know it’s not going to be a fun, pop movie about a bunch of ex-Disney girls partying by the ocean that it appears to be. Most people walking into the theater simply had no idea what they were getting into, and after leaving, were confused about what they had seen. I know I was at least. Sooner than you expect it takes a dark turn into a world of dominance and violence, a world of completely alien and unlikeable characters set in a confusing, choppy wonderland of drugs, crime, and bad rappers.
If you take this movie seriously and at face value, it would be completely terrible. The whole thing is in montage effect; scenes slipping in and out of focus, drifting in and back out like the tides. Voice-over is used frequently, often stopping and restarting, repeating some lines over and over like a refrain of some sort. It’s like a music video nightmare, a combination of Ke$ha and Reservoir Dogs. The characters are all bizarrely flat, and as an audience you aren’t encouraged to care about any of them. The main girls had a lot of power while at the same time were completely devoid of any character or individuality. At the end, I didn’t even remember any of their names except for Faith, Selena Gomez’s character, simply because her name had to do with the fact that she was religious and (spoiler alert) the one who leaves and goes home half-way through the movie.
Spring Breakers is ultimately a pointless, hedonistic dreamscape. An exaggeration a society that is obsessed with: money, sex, drugs, female body, power, and violence. And therein lies the satire. The problem with this movie is that it is hard to tell whether some of the terrible aspects of this movie are meant to be satirical, or is the movie just bad? Honestly, you could argue either way. I think I know where the film was going, but I still can’t come to a conclusion about whether it was good or not. Honestly, you should see it, if just for the experience. Either you’ll be swept along on the drug-induced fever dream, or you’ll laugh at the jokes that may or may not be intentional.
Go See: If you want something interesting, or at the very least to satisfy your curiosity.
Don’t See: If you like movies with great characters and a great plot line.