Thrilling. Challenging. Bold. Beautiful.
Obscene. Exploitative. Hollow. Cheap.
These two series of adjectives represent the range of reactions Spring Breakers is likely to trigger. Indeed, it is full of explicit renditions of hardcore partying which should not be a surprise to anyone, given the title. But under the surface of the flashy overdose of drug abuse, nudity and violence is a chilling tale of four girls' descent into the void this environment creates.
Bored by their mundane life at home with the ever same school, same people and same activities, the four protagonists (Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, Vanessa Hudgens and Rachel Korine) long for the excitement of Spring Break. As a first hint that they are absolutely determined to overcome all obstacles on their way there, they rob a diner to get the money (with water guns). Once in Florida and after a party marathon they end up in jail for when the police busts a whole crowd in a hotel room full of drugs. Out of nowhere the local gangster figure "Alien" (James Franco) bails them out. The question is whether he does this out of sympathy or if he has other motives in mind. The other question is if the girls will fully adapt to his lifestyle or if they will regret their decision to trust him.
The reason why Spring Breakers allows for such diverse reactions as depicted above is because it is a film that thrives on contrasts. The chaos of the uncontrolled party excesses are shot in a distinctive MTV video-clip aesthetic underlined with blaring dubstep beats which is constantly contrasted with calm, serene sequences of the girls fooling around by themselves, relaxing on the beach or just plain captures of the city at night that are accompanied by a string-based soundtrack and a poetic, repetitive voice-over narration by different characters. In this manner of juxtaposing raw action with peaceful shots of the surroundings where it takes place, it evokes associations with Thin Red Line and in a way the whole films seems like Terrence Malick directing something like 24 Hour Party People. Through those calm scenes the overkill of stimuli in the party scenes becomes painfully shallow and nihilistic and therefore serves as a powerful comment on the particular mindless hedonism that is Spring Break. Therefore, it is not handled in an exploitative manner. It is not a satire, but it does what the best satire does, which is present the object of criticism in a pure, untouched way to let it unmask its lunacy itself without any extra commentary. Often the same exact scenes of random people freaking out on the beach are repeated which gets really exhausting which is exactly the point. The danger of this approach to subtle commentary is of course that the criticism then bypasses the audience.
It should however become more than obvious when the group is divided between two girls who refuse to go down the road with "Alien" (and therefore go home) and two who are willing to follow him in all sorts of quests culminating in an armed assault on his main rival. In the last third of the film, the actual Spring Break seems very far behind, but what stands out is how it shaped the girls in different ways. The two that remain in Florida develop an obsessive relationship with Alien which is reminiscent of a Manson Family-like cult or a coked up deadly vipers version of Charlie's Angels. The red thread of extreme contrasts is kept up when scenes of brutal violence are shot with the most beautiful colour scheme. It is glowing with a neon buzz that creates a very dreamlike atmosphere that can be compared to the effect of the soft pastel colours of The Virgin Suicides. Indeed, it also shares some central themes with Sofia Coppola's classic, as in both films a group of young girls is driven to extreme behaviour by a rigid, norm-based social context. Incidentally, Tarantino named Spring Breakers his favourite film of 2013 and if he were to remake The Virgin Suicides the result could be quite similar to this.
A final music cue sums up the contradictory elements that Harmony Korine lets crash into one another. On top of the scenes of brutal murders during the final assault the brilliant composer Cliff Martinez ("Drive") picks up a motif from the initial Skrillex track we hear at the beginning of the film. This weird mixture of a string quartet playing a dubstep tune encapsulates the clashes this film is willing to embrace. In a way, both parties of movie goers reacting to this film are right. It is thrillingly unsettling and confusingly beautiful.
Obscene. Exploitative. Hollow. Cheap.
These two series of adjectives represent the range of reactions Spring Breakers is likely to trigger. Indeed, it is full of explicit renditions of hardcore partying which should not be a surprise to anyone, given the title. But under the surface of the flashy overdose of drug abuse, nudity and violence is a chilling tale of four girls' descent into the void this environment creates.
Bored by their mundane life at home with the ever same school, same people and same activities, the four protagonists (Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, Vanessa Hudgens and Rachel Korine) long for the excitement of Spring Break. As a first hint that they are absolutely determined to overcome all obstacles on their way there, they rob a diner to get the money (with water guns). Once in Florida and after a party marathon they end up in jail for when the police busts a whole crowd in a hotel room full of drugs. Out of nowhere the local gangster figure "Alien" (James Franco) bails them out. The question is whether he does this out of sympathy or if he has other motives in mind. The other question is if the girls will fully adapt to his lifestyle or if they will regret their decision to trust him.
The reason why Spring Breakers allows for such diverse reactions as depicted above is because it is a film that thrives on contrasts. The chaos of the uncontrolled party excesses are shot in a distinctive MTV video-clip aesthetic underlined with blaring dubstep beats which is constantly contrasted with calm, serene sequences of the girls fooling around by themselves, relaxing on the beach or just plain captures of the city at night that are accompanied by a string-based soundtrack and a poetic, repetitive voice-over narration by different characters. In this manner of juxtaposing raw action with peaceful shots of the surroundings where it takes place, it evokes associations with Thin Red Line and in a way the whole films seems like Terrence Malick directing something like 24 Hour Party People. Through those calm scenes the overkill of stimuli in the party scenes becomes painfully shallow and nihilistic and therefore serves as a powerful comment on the particular mindless hedonism that is Spring Break. Therefore, it is not handled in an exploitative manner. It is not a satire, but it does what the best satire does, which is present the object of criticism in a pure, untouched way to let it unmask its lunacy itself without any extra commentary. Often the same exact scenes of random people freaking out on the beach are repeated which gets really exhausting which is exactly the point. The danger of this approach to subtle commentary is of course that the criticism then bypasses the audience.
It should however become more than obvious when the group is divided between two girls who refuse to go down the road with "Alien" (and therefore go home) and two who are willing to follow him in all sorts of quests culminating in an armed assault on his main rival. In the last third of the film, the actual Spring Break seems very far behind, but what stands out is how it shaped the girls in different ways. The two that remain in Florida develop an obsessive relationship with Alien which is reminiscent of a Manson Family-like cult or a coked up deadly vipers version of Charlie's Angels. The red thread of extreme contrasts is kept up when scenes of brutal violence are shot with the most beautiful colour scheme. It is glowing with a neon buzz that creates a very dreamlike atmosphere that can be compared to the effect of the soft pastel colours of The Virgin Suicides. Indeed, it also shares some central themes with Sofia Coppola's classic, as in both films a group of young girls is driven to extreme behaviour by a rigid, norm-based social context. Incidentally, Tarantino named Spring Breakers his favourite film of 2013 and if he were to remake The Virgin Suicides the result could be quite similar to this.
A final music cue sums up the contradictory elements that Harmony Korine lets crash into one another. On top of the scenes of brutal murders during the final assault the brilliant composer Cliff Martinez ("Drive") picks up a motif from the initial Skrillex track we hear at the beginning of the film. This weird mixture of a string quartet playing a dubstep tune encapsulates the clashes this film is willing to embrace. In a way, both parties of movie goers reacting to this film are right. It is thrillingly unsettling and confusingly beautiful.
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