Review: Harmony Korine's 'Spring Breakers'

'S p r i n g  b r e a k  forever....'

Last week I was with my beautiful uni friends up in Newcastle, and after some good solid uni work (a presentation which I just found out I got a first in! Yay!) we took a well-earned break and went to The Gate for something to eat and a cinema trip!

The original plan was to see The Place Beyond The Pines, the latest installment in our Gosling loving, but unfortunately it was full by the time we got there! So, Spring Breakers was the second choice.

Spring Breakers, directed by Harmony Korine, is a full-on film about four girls who commit a robbery in order to fund their spring break, but who end up under rapper Alien's wing after he bails them out of prison.

I had heard a lot of hype over Spring Breakers ever since the beginning of the year, so I was pretty excited. Sadly.... I was largely disappointed.

I'll start off by saying that visually, Spring Breakers is brilliant. Full of saturated neon colour and stunning sunsets, it really does evoke a bright sense of summer and heat during spring break, with a great contrast of dark greyness when the girls are at college. In terms of fashion, you only have to look around your high street to see the grungy girlyness worn by Disney stars Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens in the film has had a direct influence. 

However...
... the film is shot through a lot of extreme close ups, and also with distorted visual effects to emanate the characters' drug use, which can be a little headache-inducing (although I did watch it from two feet away in a teeeny weeny cinema, so that probably didn't help). 

Spring Breakers tends to tell its story indirectly, through images, which weirdly seems to slow the pace of the film down and yet make it a little hard to follow. Also, the plot itself is kind of nonexistent, and what little plot there is is a bit ridiculous, and, quite frankly, creepy.

There is some good stuff here though; the way the robbery is shot from outside, through the window of the getaway car, is reeeeally cool, and the use of the sound of a gun shot between scenes (and when Alien mimes taking a picture) provides an ominous undertone and effective sense of dread. Also, when the film just takes a breath and slows down, it gets considerably better. 

James Franco is definitely the best thing about the film, once you get over his ridiculous appearance and accent. His chemistry with Faith (Selena Gomez) is tangible, and he brings the little comedy there is really well. Speaking of Faith, hers is the only character you can really like, but she is only present for half the film; this is where it goes downhill, because the only girl you cared about is gone, so you're not really bothered about what happens next. 

One thing you NEED to know about Spring Breakers is that it is most certainly not one to watch with the family. There is barely a moment without some form of sex, nudity or phallic symbolism, which is so incessant that by the end it doesn't even make an impact. The four stars are gorgeous, but there's only so many girls in bikinis you can see bouncing around before you get a little bored (even the boys next to me were! Honest!).

As I say, I was pretty disappointed with Spring Breakers. There was good moments, but overall too much sex, not enough character development and basically no plot. I'll always love James Franco, but I'm not sure what drew him to this film and his character, I guess I think he's better than this. 

I hate to say this about any film, but it just wasn't worth the price of the cinema ticket, and I wouldn't even recommend giving it a watch!

Rating: 1.5 out of 5 (I couldn't decide between 1 and 2!)

Have you seen Spring Breakers?

Thanks for reading!

Sophie.