To young Americans spring break is seen as the ultimate get away; a rites of passage to be experienced at least once. The mixture of drinking, drugs, sex and partying makes for an interesting backdrop to any story. Unfortunately, Spring Breakers by Harmony Korine fails to explores any of these themes and opts for neon bikini-clad girls and flashy gun shoot outs.
The film focuses on four colleges girls planning their spring break; Faith, (Selena Gomez) Candy, (Vanessa Hudgens) Brittany, (Ashley Benson) and Cotty, (Rachel Korine). The girls lack of funds result in them, minus Faith, robbing a local restaurant to pay for the trip. Once on spring break they live life to the full until one party results in the girls being arrested. Faced with jail the girls are bailed out by local rapper/gangster Alien, (James Franco). Alien introduces the girls to his world of wealth and violence; offering the girls a chance to be part of it.
Here, Korine states that he never had spring break so wrote what he thought it would be like. The result is an undeveloped, lazy excuse of a film. The characters are underwritten and serve no purpose on the screen. They have no depth, no greater purpose other than running around spouting dodgy dialogue in a state of undress.
The story is honestly lack-lustre. There's no real obstacle or problem for the characters to overcome. The girls decent into violence is exaggerated and has not catalyst, therefore no understanding or empathy to its consequences. With out any depth, you don’t feel for the characters or care where their actions will take them. The film touches on subjects that it never really has the guts to explore such as Faith's issues with her religion. This lack of exploring is frustrating to an audience who expect more.
Korine chose to cast actresses whose off screen personas contrast their characters. With Gomez and Hudgens the films violent and sexual content goes completely against their Disney teen queen constructed image that both, so clearly, want to break free from. Although some may argue that this is a commercial choice, picking actors who wouldn’t be the norm is a brave idea. Its challenging the people you cast giving them opportunity as actors to grow. Sadly, with Spring Breakers, all the cast have done is prove they can run across the screen scantily clad. The only one of the girls that has a hint of depth is Gomez's character. She struggles to fit in with her friends and stay true to her religion, hence the name Faith (that’s intelligent). But she's underwritten and Gomez has nothing to work with.
Overall a silly, sensationalist film that squanders the talent of Korine who has shown himself to have had more to give in film. In Korine’s hands, the film had the potential to suggest why youth is so obsessed with attainment. At the very least the film should have had something to say; amessage and depth that maybe hard to hear.
Instead, the audience are subjected to teen Baywatch with guns.