Directed
by Harmony Korine, starring well known actors such as James
Franco, Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, and new on the
scene Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine and rap star Gucci Mane.
The film follows four college-aged girls who decide to rebel against the norm
and rob a chicken restaurant in order to pay for their 'american tradition' of
spring break, but in reality it's much more than that. It was
actually intended to be only released on DVD but because of the publicity
it got - most likely due to the actresses and subjects covered, they decided to
release it on the big screens.
After
seeing it myself on the opening day most of the people that I have personally
spoken to about Spring Breakers have gone on and on about how terrible they
thought it was, how it 'didn't make sense' but i believe that they fail to see
what the movie is actually portraying it can get frustrating to hear the same
review from the same people over and over who refuse to take it as anything
more than a first glance. Yes the story seems unbelievable (what films are?)
and it may mainly be focused on partying, drugs and violence BUT if you look a
little deeper, don't look at it so literally it really does have a good message
encoded in it.
spoiler alert
The Complaints - “The girls and nudity were
unnecessary” "Selena Gomez was only in it for like a half
hour” “Those parties are unrealistic” “The James Franco gun barrel
scene was disturbing” “What was the point of Brit and Candy talking to
their mums about wanting to be good right before they went and killed
everyone” “They should have been punished in the end” "It repeated
itself so much"
Explanations - Why
is any nudity shown in any film ever? This film like any other, is a
form of art and the opening scene introduction which includes raging teenagers
drinking, kissing, flashing usually covered body parts, and essentially just
partying is Harmony Korine’s interpretation of what he believes a spring break
vacation actually entails. The introduction is actually very reminiscent of the
live spring break specials filmed and sponsored by MTV several years ago (seelink here). Also it may serve as a warning for those who had other expectations
for the movie to stop watching the film i.e. Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens
fans. Keep in mind the movie is rated 18, and that is for a reason. Korine’s
first scene in his 1995 film Kids is supposedly just as bad. I think having
such a graphic opening scene cuts straight to the point, if you don't like what
you see or are offended then you aren't ready for what's coming at all.
If you are only going to see this film because Selena Gomez
or Vanessa Hudgens are in it then you need to go to your bedroom and rip down
your Wizards of Waverley Place poster, burn your High School Musical DVD's and
start looking at your life. Also the fact that some people have lost respect
for the main actresses because of this movie is incredibly narrow
minded because just like the director, they are artists. Actresses aren't
supposed to play the same character over & over again, that's the point.
Maybe they don’t want to be seen as the innocent TV star that they have been
type cast as and maybe it’s time for there fans to grow up too.
Even I found the James Franco scene a little hard to
watch but it was the moment in the film where you saw the connection made
between Brit, Candy and Alien. You saw that he would be willing to do anything
for them at that point which would in the end lead to his death, you could see
how the status of the characters changed, instead of the girls being in awe of
Alien and his so called power, it changed so quickly to where they were calling
the shots, quite literally.
The scenes near the end where Brit and Candy called
their mums urging them that they wanted to be better, happy and wanted to do
good in school and that they had finally realized that "in order to be happy they had
to be good people" is
actually a very important scene concerning the film as a whole and more
importantly answers another problem people found with the movie, regarding
punishment. Korine made this scene particularly long in the film and I believe
it was so that his last point would be made clear. Some argue that the
last two girls had gone unpunished. The first to leave, Faith, punished her
self in the guilt she felt for having committed such
"unchristian" behaviour and the second girl to leave,
Cotty, was shot in the arm so she was definitely psychically punished. The girls each told their mums that “the
secret to being happy is being a good person” and after the roughly 15 murders
they both commit they are inarguably NOT good people. Essentially they become
evil and by their own definitions they shall never be happy. They
are punished by being fated to live unhappy lives. Lives thats may mirror
Alien’s who after all was plotting to kill his ex best friend. Will Candy and
Brit follow in their foot steps?
I was left with questions though, so why did Alien
want to kill his best friend? What made Brit & Candy so Destructive? Did
they kill Alien so he didn't get a chance to kill himself. I believe a
good film should leave you with questions and wanting more...
The cinematography was stunning with the luminous
visuals, so different to any film I’ve seen recently. The repetition of the
dialogue and time jumping made the film edgy and constantly stimulating, I will
never be able to listen to 'Everytime' by Britney Spears the same way ever
again. Personally I just loved the thought process behind each character and
their traits, the whole ideology behind their trip and what they wanted to gain
from it; turning into something much more sinister but at the same time liberating
and free. The whole technique used throughout of cross cutting the
narrative, blurring audio from one scene over another and voice-overs,
heightens that candy dream exaggeration of reality that Korine
claims he was after, it works really well and makes you feel as if it's all in
your own head it's refreshing to have something different for a
change. The music was also another thing I was impressed with, featuring Skrillex, Nicki Minaj, Britney Spears
and Ellie
Goulding. They also incorporated a lullaby-like songs to the
more mellow scenes which worked incredibly well for the atmosphere.
I can see why people go in and come out hating it, if
you want to see a movie that is structured and based on form than dont. if
you want to watch this film because your looking for something funny
and you think it's not going to be serious like Hangover, Project X,
American Pie. then don’t because you will
be disappointed.
I hope that whoever reads this can find it in
themselves to give Spring Breakers another chance because it really was quite a
spectacular film, you probably won't be able to see that from the beginning as it's not what you expect it to be at all, but surprises can sometimes be good.
No comments:
Post a Comment