I’ve recommended Spring Breakers to a lot of people. A majority end up watching it, assuming that Selena Gomez in a bikini equals a good movie. While it certainly doesn’t hurt, Harmony Korine’s latest feature is a film that far exceeds the other films Selena Gomez.
Gomez, as well as a few other former child stars play college students that want nothing more than to join the rest of their classmates on Spring Break. When they can’t acquire enough funds to do so, they resort to crime which follows them to spring break. There they meet, criminal/rapper Alien, played by James Franco. From here a story about loss of innocence, realities of the world, and consumerism/materialism unfold.
No one who decided to watch this film came back to me and said they liked it. They all actually hated it. They disliked the film’s lack of story, repletion, and the fact that Selena Gomez wasn’t in it as much as expected. The film does suffer from an almost non-existent plot, but instead has a story that studies the transformation of these girls into women. It is a coming of age film that deals with an older generation of people, on the brink of adulthood.
People also complained that the film repeated shots, and dialogue far too often. This original concept serves a great purpose in the film constantly referring back to where this girls were compared to them at their current state of development in the film. The director gives us a reference point to see where these girls were, and flash back to see what they have become.
This is a beautiful film. Its cinematography is gorgeous, and its glorified violence is an impressive sight to see, even though it takes second place to the voice over that often accompanies it. It is a complete 180 from the director’s previous films, most were intentionally ugly, and these are intentionally beautiful.
I hope that you can re-watch this film or watch it for the first time, and see exactly how wonderful the film is and the deliberate decisions it makes serve an important purpose. Or maybe everything I’m saying is wrong and you hate it your first watch and never want to see it again. Either way I highly recommend you watch this film. Thanks for reading and make sure to come back next week for another installation of Jackson’s obscure film of the week.
