Review of Spring Breakers (2013) by K. L — 30 Apr 2014

Written and directed by Harmony Korine (Gummo (1997), Julien Donkey-Boy (1999) and Mister Lonely (2007)), this was written by Korine as a way of making up for all the spring breaks he missed as a teenager, and he concocted a crime caper scenario as the backbone of this film.

It's a good film but it's very wild, and there's a lot of colour on display, and it has some good performances actually. St. Petersburg, Florida. 4 friends, Faith (Selena Gomez), Brittany (Ashley Benson), Candy (Vanessa Hudgens) and Cotty (Rachel Korine) head down there for spring break, but they don't have any money, but that's OK, as they'll just steal it, by any means necessary.

Robbing local restaurants and stores to fund their hedonistic lifestyle down in Florida, but they soon end up getting arrested but they're quickly bailed out by the mysterious Alien (James Franco), who turns out to be a local rapper and gangster, who does gun and drug runs.

He wants the girls to come and work with him, and enjoy his criminal lifestyle, but it tears the friends apart. Korine seems to be maturing a lot more since he wrote the likes of Kids (1995), while the film has an unmistakable Dogme 95 look and feel about it, all shot with day-glo colours, it manages to be engaging.

It's well worth it for Franco, who has the time of his life playing the dangerous yet charismatic Alien.