Recently, I had the opportunity to see Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers at the SXSW premiere event of the film. In attendance were director/creator Harmony Korine and several members of the cast, including James Franco, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, and Rachel Korine. This event was about as crazy as the movie itself, as Hollywood celebrities, press, and SXSW attendees had the chance to see Spring Breakers for the first time. To say this film is over-the-top, wild, and crazy would be a vast understatement. Spring Breakers is a vulgar, provocative, unique film with many “wow” moments throughout. This film features Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine, and James Franco in the epitome of taking spring break to the extreme.
Courtesy of Google Images
Spring Breakers begins with footage of real spring breakers on a beach drinking, tearing off their clothes, and dancing to loud music. The audience is then taken to a college where the four girls mentioned above are in school, anxiously awaiting spring break. When they learn they don’t have enough money to make it through the trip, three of the girls decide to rob a restaurant. After obtaining the money needed for their vacation, they embark on a drug and alcohol infested trip to the beach. Soon after they begin having the time of their lives, the girls are arrested for too much partying. A drug dealer (Franco) who wants to help them continue living it up during spring break soon bails them out, and the real party begins. It quickly becomes clear how far these girls will go to have fun and experience a spring break they will never forget.
Courtesy of Google Images
Spring Breakers is filled with adult language, underage drinking, drug use, sexual content, nudity, loud music, and anything one could imagine from the most insane spring break trip ever. Once you believe this film has gone to far, it just keeps going. There are several moments in the film where you will want to look away from the screen. Some will find Spring Breakers funny, wild, and entertaining, while others may find it offensive in many ways. Gomez plays a religious good-girl type, while Benson, Hudgens, and (Rachel) Korine play wild, sexy, college girls looking for a good time. Franco plays the most outrageous and crazy role of all as a want-to-be gangster only concerned with women, guns, alcohol, drugs, and making a name for himself.
Courtesy of Google Images
This is not a film for all audiences. Spring Breakers takes young girls, Gomez, Hudgens, and Benson, best known for teenage or Disney TV and film, and places them in skimpy bikinis throughout most of the film, showing them drinking, doing drugs, and having sex. Their performance in Spring Breakers will shock fans of their previous work. The actresses have been quoted saying this film gave them a chance to “push themselves and try something different”.
Photo by Hayden Pittman
Spring Breakers is a hyper-realistic, awkwardly entertaining, “fever dream” adventure. This film had a lot of buzz going into the SXSW festival in Austin, TX, and will continue to create controversy and much discussion. I rate this film a 3 out of 5 stars. Spring Breakers is rated R for strong sexual content, language, nudity, drug use and violence throughout. Running time is 1 hour and 32 minutes.
By: Hayden Pittman, Film Critic for YouPlusDallas
Click here to view my author archive, movie reviews and entertainment news on YouPlusDallas
Courtesy of Google Images
