Review of Spring Breakers (2013) by Emily A — 02 Apr 2015

Four college students resort to robbery to fund a spring break trip to Florida.

Lacking almost all restraint, director Harmony Korine fashions a didactic drama about hedonism and materialism while including enough skin to make Hugh Hefner blush. Though the film is clearly "artistic" (as opposed to pornographic) with its slow motion shots, fractured narrative, and repeated "poetic" voice-overs, it can't escape the fact that it quickly becomes a parody of itself. Take for example a scene in which Alien shows off his "pad." He says, "Look at my shit" approximately twenty times, and I couldn't resist thinking, "Look at my props department. They found a lot of guns and an oddly shaped bed." A lack of subtlety isn't always necessary, but Spring Breakers goes so over the top that I couldn't stomach the predictable conclusion of its ham-handed plot.

Overall, Harmony Korine may be a fine writer, as evidenced by Kids, but as a director he has much to learn.