Movie Review: Spring Breakers (2013)
Written by Anthony Sargon
"Spring Breakers" is hands-down one of the most unique (and quotable) films you'll watch this year, and it's all thanks to James Franco's brilliant performance. That's not to say it doesn't have its fair share of problems, but "Spring Breakers" is a stylish and memorable experience that's sure to please its target audience.
Faith (Selena Gomez), Brit (Ashley Benson), Candy (Vanessa Hudgens) and Cotty (Rachel Korine) are childhood friends who go to college together. They're bored of their everyday lives and want to start over, and spring break is the ultimate reason to pack up and leave. They're short on money and end up robbing a restaurant to afford driving to Florida. After getting busted for partying a little too hard, the girls are bailed out of Jail by a drug dealer who calls himself Alien (James Franco). He takes the girls under his wing, and they get into all sorts of crazy shenanigans together.
Director Harmony Korine (Kids, Gummo) injects a lot of style into "Spring Breakers", and it definitely pays off. This is his most mainstream work to date, but it's still pretty unconventional overall. There are a lot of voice-overs and the whole movie feels like a trance; music constantly plays in the background while the audience is treated to beautiful imagery of gorgeous women doing a bevy of inappropriate things.
The true reason this film works, though, is James Franco. He not only gives one of the best performances of his career, but one of the funniest as well. You'll be quoting him as soon as you step out of the theater, and the movie's worth watching just for that.
"Spring Breakers" does struggle in its first half, and that's because it mainly centers around the girls. They're not the most talented actresses of the lot, and their primary function is to look good in a bikini. Franco does all the heavy lifting while they provide the eye candy, which is a shame, but it works with the message Harmony Korine is trying to send; spring break has become an industry with a set of expectations: gratuitous nudity, sex, and week-long binges. He gives us what we've come to expect, both to please us and make us cringe.
Anthony's Verdict:
While it drags during the first half, "Spring Breakers" earns a recommendation thanks to its style and James Franco's captivating performance.
Numerical Score: 7.5/10
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