“LOOK AT ALL MY SHIT!”

A vacuous line from an oddly deep and articulate speech delivered courtesy of James Franco’s Britney Spears-loving gangster Alien. If that previous observation seems a little schizophrenic, then welcome to my experience of watching Spring Breakers, the latest offering from so-called ‘enfant terribles‘, Harmony Korine.

Harmony Korine is a director who’s reputation proceeds him. Before Spring Breakers I had never watched any of his films all the way through. I had seen clips and heard the various opinions of his work but for some reason or another, whether it was my age, cinematic tastes or upbringing, Korine’s work had always been a black hole in my film knowledge.  I have read an ever expansive range of opinions about this man’s filmography. From heartfelt praise and  scholarly discussion of his oeuvre to film and the ‘revolutionary methods’ Korine has undertaken to rewrite the language of cinema. And through use of inventive auteuristic filmmaking methods, the presentation of sub-cultures and their societies. To his work being as passionately derided and described as alienating the mainstream audience because of the extremely self-indulgent and exploitative nature of his work.

All these contrary opinions from critics, scholars, fellow filmmakers and cinema audiences perfectly encapsulates the conflicting responses I had to this film. So much so that regardless of my overall preference for the film, I would recommend you to watch it just to see if you have similar feelings.

THE REVIEW

This film has to be one of the hardest to review in a finite number of words. But I will try…

For the first good forty minutes of so, I was the closest I had ever been to walking out.

I had an inkling going into the film that it might not be my cup of tea but I didn’t think I’d have so much vehement antipathy towards what was being thrust at me in what I felt was a repeated visual/audio punch in the face. I think that I may have been too young and too not American to bare witness to the Girls Gone Wild saga of the nineties, after all, I am the first generation of the internet age, so if people want that kind of thing it’s at their fingertips.

I’d like to state here that scantily-clad female bodies on display doesn’t particularly irk me. It’s your body, you do with it what you want. Women’s lib in my opinion is about freedom for all women, if you’re happy to show as much skin as possible more power to you. If that’s not your cup of tea (as is my leaning) then such is your right too. As long as nobody is being forced to do what they don’t want to do then it’s alright by me.

My fault with the first half of this film is that it was all so boring. Boredom for me is the worst possible feeling to have when watching a film. It was also going on for far too long. Combine that with the pounding shit sandwich of music being forcefed into my ears at the time, in those moments I had firmly placed myself amongst the bosom buddies of Korine dissidents. I kept thinking what is this overindulgent crapfest?

(I’d like to note that I noticed only one other woman in the screening I attended, which gave a good indicator of the kind of target audience the film assumed it would attract. What proved more interesting was that upon leaving the screening, many of the audience commented that first forty minutes went on too long and they were relieved when James Franco came on screen. So it seems, maybe there can be enough tits and ass for some men?)

The Script (was there one?)

I’ve said in the past that I’m a bit of a sucker for films with good scripts. There doesn’t have to be much happening on the screen but if the script is good, I can be converted. I went into Spring Breakers well aware that Korine’s previous output don’t necessarily follow a strict script structure instead relying on imagery and sound to create it’s own structure. This was something that I was surprised to find I appreciated in the latter half of the film and appreciated more in hindsight for the overblown first half.  I understood perfectly the world Korine was creating. Some people, who similarly had complaints about the beginnings of the film, found fault in the lack of script and the insistence of the leads to repeat vacuous phrases over and over.

That for me is not a fault of the film. In fact I found it worked in the film’s favor perfectly translating the motivations and thinking of the four leads that represent a group of people that actually exist. They live for superficiality, hedonism and lack of responsibility. For them, spring break is their idea of paradise, the epitome of the mantra of which they live by. So the repeated phrase of “Spring Break Forever” demonstrates their obsessive determination to achieve that mantra. For me it made their actions in the beginning of the film, a natural progression, an almost inevitable act.

However, you’d think that the film would finally kick in while the leads are using illegal gains to afford their trip. Nope, we are introduced to another twenty minutes or so of more partying, drinking and ass shaking. Who knew partying could be made to look so unappealing?

You’re probably thinking if I was having such a terrible experience watching this film then what made me stay to the end?

Well there were a couple of factors. One of the main things is that I am a creature of habit. I have never walked out of a film, free or otherwise. I made the effort to travel to the cinema and sit there, I will see it through, no matter how hideous the experience. I also sit through all films because I rarely outright hate a film. I always try to find some redeeming quality and am usually successful. I also had heard great things about this film from a range of people who have diverse taste in film, so I was just waiting for the great things to happen and it did happen. Well not great but very good. Any that very good thing?

James Franco.

The Acting

I know.

James Franco. The great “Permasmirk” (trademark pending) and weakest link in Oz: The Great and the Powerful rides in to save the day. His appearance on screen seemingly signals the beginning of the film. Its almost like Spring Breakers is a two-parter. The latter half actually redeeming the whole. Moving on from the superficiality and vacuous world created, the film moves on to scratching the surface of these characters. I’m guessing the first half exists to create a world of a bored, frustrated existence for the girls before they reach their Spring Break destination. Then there’s the blurred, drugged and drunk experience of the actual spring break. The second half kicks in with a clarity that is a shock to the system of the leads (Selena Gomez’s character in particular) and a refreshing boost to the audience. It is here that Korine decides to explore their motivations once spring break is over and he uses a confident and motivated Franco to explore this.
The payoff is good as we experience the initial moral ambiguity and fearlessness of the leads that slowly starts to erode as their actions start to reap real consequences.

I don’t want to give away what happens so I will instead look more at the performances.

As I have previously stated, Franco was a surprise revelation. My fondness for James has had its ups and downs, the lowest point being his distracted performance in Oz. Here he redeemed himself once again, fully throwing himself into a multifaceted portrayal of Alien, the charming, dangerous, volatile yet gentle gangster. When I say set pictures and adverts for the film, I did think that he would be giving a comical turn as a wannabe gangster but although he has his comedic moments (the “Look at my shit!” speech being a highlight), there is constantly an underlying sinister edge to his character that makes his rise and power in the criminal world extremely believable.

The other revelation is Selena Gomez, who prior to this film, was only known to me as the particularly baby-faced girlfriend of Justin Bieber. That and as that she is a product of the Disney TV franchise. She shares the lead with the three other girls, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson and Rachel Korine. From the start she stands out as the moral voice and conflicted soul that is tempered against the frightening and notorious threesome she is friends with. It’s quite obvious that aside from Franco’s Alien, Gomez’s Faith is the most developed, and Gomez rises to the challenge extremely well. I don’t know whether it was the solidity of the performance or her baby face but Gomez definitely pulled at my heartstrings when she comes to the realization that spring break may not be all that she thought it would be. Her realization that ‘shit has gotten real’ and desperation to get out  moved me and I think that her scenes with Franco play as some of the best in the whole film.

Selena Gomez is not the only person to have come out of the Disney factory, with Vanessa Hudgens also eager to shed her PG-13 image. Her part is less defined than Gomez’s, so she may have had less to work with but I found her to be the most distracting and weakest in the acting arena to be honest. As part of the more morally ambiguous indistinguishable threesome Hudgens manages to stand out as the most inconsistent. For starters I’m pretty sure she picked up Franco’s “permasmirk” (it can be a noun and a verb!) because she just never stopped smiling.

Never.

Her character is immoral. I get that, but for instance, when one of her friends is in extreme distress it’s really inappropriate to be smiling perkily throughout. She seemed like she was just so excited to be there! I almost felt as if in between takes she’s clapping and jumping around proclaiming that finally, she’s an adult. In an adult film. Wearing a bikini. A BIKINI!

I just kept thinking to myself, kid you look demented. But not the kind of demented that was required for this film. I found she was best when she wore the ski mask. That way, her inappropriate perkiness was covered and she could be taken more seriously.

Sight and Sound

Alas, I managed to find to her performance not so distracting that I couldn’t appreciate the far superior work of her co-stars. I also found myself charmed by the visuals too. I liked the world Korine creates, the neon lights and griminess of the night of holiday towns off season reminded me of the volatile and dangerous world of Enter The Void. Simultaneously day scenes, of the flashy expensive taste of the tasteless reminded me of MTV’s Cribs (is that still on?) The unrelenting obsession with possessing things for the sake of being the one who has most is artfully created here and is indicative the film’s subculture and some might say society in general. Korine presents a world that isn’t so ‘alien’ as one might think.

The music is an important tool used in this film and although I remember really hating it in the beginning, I don’t whether I got used to the music which contains the likes of Skrillex or was able to ignore it. Maybe my goodwill towards the latter half of the film meant I was more lenient, but I have come to realize that the use of music, if not to my taste, was cleverly used. There are two particular scenes where this is apparent. The first involves Franco’s Alien serenading the girls with a choice of song that I initially thought was used for laughs. However, the strength and conviction of the performance made me get over the the joke in hand, actually listen to the lyrics and come to understand to some degree the thinking behind individual’s such as these. While to people like me, the chosen song is as generic and meaningless as they come, for people like Alien, who do exist, they contain a higher meaning and a message they relate to.

The other scene was the very last long scene. I don’t really remember why I thought it worked. I just remember thinking at the time that it all tied together.

OVERALL THOUGHTS…

Like a therapy session I’ve tried to work out what it all means. Do I like this film?

I still don’t know.

Besides seeing what Korine was going for, I still stand in my strong dislike of a good portion of the film. Yet conversely, the latter half clicked with me. I would still recommend the film not because I like it because I am intrigued as to people’s varying reactions to it. I always champion a film that I might not like, but can get passions flaring and debate going.

I should note that this is a must for Franco-philes. This is possibly his best performance I have seen in recent memory. Better than his award-nominated turn in 127 Hours. And this is coming from someone who was previously apathetic at best.

Is it still in cinemas?
In the UK, particularly London, it’s nearing the end of its theatrical run but is still currently showing at Empire Leicester Square and Vue Cinemas Shepherd’s Bush.