Spring Breakers

Movie, 2012, R

Premise - A group of four college girls rob a local store to run away to Miami for the spring break of a lifetime. Arrested for the use of illegal narcotics, the girls are mysteriously bailed out by a local gang leader who promises them a spring break much more interesting than your standard beach-side parties.

Review - This has been sitting on my Netflix list for years out of pure, shameless curiosity. Late night scrolling through my list led me to realize that the film was being removed from Netflix today, so last night I just laid in bed and somewhat hesitantly pressed play. This was a bad movie. Like, I anticipated going into it that it was going to be a film all about sensationalism and showing off women's bodies, but even THAT wasn't done that well. The opening sequence was sensational enough, with a montage of a beach party filled with half-naked men and completely topless women, rolling around together and spraying booze all over their naked chests. But even that was the "highlight" of the film, because those same shots were used OVER and OVER again every time there was a sort of montage transition. It got old. Not to mention, our four main characters were not focused upon in any of those extreme party sequences. I think it was entirely intentional that while the film was full of boobs, none of them would be the tits of the main characters because a film with Ashley Benson, Selena Gomez, and/or Vanessa Hudgens' breasts would be as exploitative as all hell. Nonetheless, the women's bodies are still very much a subject of the film. They are always in bikinis, even when they are in court, shopping, or shooting people to death. They gotta be in bikinis. Also, they gotta be touching each other. Smacking each other's asses or making out, just girly things?

As a sensationalist indie film, it did play ever so slightly with chronology/reality, but not in a way that was effective or interesting. Certain lines and scenes would just be repeated over and over, and some foreshadowing shots were thrown in there. There were also assorted oddly "artistic" shots really close up on the women, but, again, not effective or interesting.

Now let's talk James Franco, who was apparently campaigning for an Oscar nomination as Supporting Actor. He disguised himself very well in his gang getup, with the dreads and gold teeth. He was also very convincingly scary. I was pleasantly surprised that there were no violent rape scenes in this movie because this man fit the ticket of a rapist in every way possible. Grooming these girls and seducing them with money. But I don't think he was scary enough to be anywhere near Oscar material, as the whole film was far too ridiculous to take seriously. I think part of the point of the film is, as dangerous as this man was, he was no more dangerous than the girls (or at least the two girls that remain), who end up killing a lot more people than he would. There's a message about female empowerment hidden in there somewhere, but it's disguised by all the closeup shots of their asses as they are shooting people.

I don't know, maybe I'm just too put off by violence to care. If this was a whole movie about attractive people dancing on a beach, with absolutely zero plot, I might have enjoyed it a bit more than whatever this was. (32/100)

Quote - I don't have a quote but I have an anti-quote... I swear to God if I have to hear James Franco say "Spring break... spring break... spring break fo'eva..." ONE MORE TIME

What to watch for - I think Vanessa Hudgens gives the most convincing and artistic performance as a bad girl out of the four.

If you liked this movie, I'd recommend From Justin to Kelly for some wholesome fun on the beach lololol. Also The Bling Ring for young beautiful women committing crimes.

Directed by Harmony Korine

Distributed by A24