Girls Just Want To Have Fun

Spring Breakers (2013)

A Review By Ben Hunter

5 Out Of 5 Stars

GET TO THE POINT BEN! 

A BRILLIANTLY told tale about the quest for growth in humanity, and what we learn from the new experiences we desperately seek to live a life memorable and regretless. Such a wonderful “look” and cinematography with the way this was filmed.  EXCELENTLY brought together in the editorial process.  A BRILLIANTLY told tale!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

4 little girls out on their own  

4 little girls now all alone 

4 little girls came with me to play 

4 little girls now here to stay  

… Spring Break … Spring Break …  

!!!!SPRING BREAK!!!!

BRILLIANT … AMAZINGLY BRILLIANT!  Wow!  What a ride! 

I have to take a moment to stop smiling and recollect what I just fathomed.  Such an amazing experience I just took with Alien, Faith, Brit, Candy, & Cotty.  Spring Breakers is a story about 4 best friends who are hungry to get out of their everyday mundane college lives.  Day after day, they can’t wait for a change of scenery so they start saving money for the memories they long to make on Spring Break, a trip they never plan to forget … but nothing what they expect!

I love how the dynamics of the relationships with our lead characters were displayed.  Britt (Ashley Benson) and Candy (Vanessa Hudgens) were like sisters, if they weren’t already.  It wasn’t specified but their demeanor depicts this.  So they thought alike.  This was similar to that of their friend Cotty (Rachel Korine, wife of director Harmony Korine and mother of his daughter Lefty Korine … I wonder how she got this part).  Cotty, Britt, & Candy all just want to have fun and are willing to get their hands a little dirty in the process.  Faith (Selena Gomez), however, isn’t of the same mentality as her counterparts.  She doesn’t speak in the provocative nature with her verbal and non-verbal language as her counterparts.  She’s the good girl of the group, the one that goes to church and has a conscience, well, a significantly stronger one than the others.  This was smart producing/casting from the filmmakers to give this role with its involvement in the story to one of the “names” of the movie.  It feels like you go through so much with these characters and that the movie is actually longer than what it really is.  

Selena Gomez, Rachel Korine, Vanessa Hudgens, & Ashley Benson

This film is nothing like what it could easily be perceived as.  It’s more of a drama than anything else you’d think of it as.  I believe word of mouth will spread and that 42 year old woman just may purchase a ticket.  Writer/director Harmony Korine (writer of Kids, and writer/director of Mister Lonely) really brings his realistic nature, in that same graphic, in your face, realistic realm that he delivered in the world of his film Kids.  The spring break party scenes, which are what the trailer and other marketing materials are loaded with, were filmed with that element of “commercial” that we think the entire movie is about.  However it’s brilliantly inter-cut with that indie filmmaker, “nitty gritty” style which really brings out that realistic nature, especially when things go haywire.  I love the shot selections and editing choices, which really highlight the beautiful cinematography.  It’s such a different movie from what it’s easily perceived as that any adult could get into this, provided they can handle the graphic nature.  Yeah, I did say things go haywire and not in the way we, or the girls we follow, expect in that college party/“spring break” way.  It has a feeling to it that just says … “different … and intriguing”.

What I love about Spring Breakers is how Korine uses this realism aspect yet GRADUALLY takes you on this journey with our young heroines who are young and just trying to live a little.  We gradually go from point to point and slowly but surely get introduced to new information, as the girls learn we learn.  My absolute FAVORITE movie EVER brilliantly does this, so it’s no surprise that I love how Korine uses this method of story telling here with the amazing editing in the shot selection and the cinematography.  It’s never too slow, or not enough, it’s just the right amount of momentum to keep us interested and want to continue.  Right when you may think that something needs to happen, new information gets introduced and our girls are in another situation that we don’t know what will happen next!  Some parts, especially in the beginning, give the feeling of the story’s just going and we get to witness it, but everything is pre-planned and for a very specific purpose, leading us to think, “wow we just went through that with these girls … wow, I can’t wait to see where this is going!”

Things go unexpected and our girls learn how to experience the new changes.

James Franco, the renaissance man, wow!  His work on the film was so spot on and so well done as the fake Kevin Federline (“white rapper” and all the negative connotations that go with those words)!  At first we laugh and say “oh another “wanna be”, but as the story progresses, and as his story PERFECTLY intersects with that of the girls who we’re initially following to now follow everyone, we see that Franco, actually does an AMAZING job, and we’re no longer laughing AT him but WITH him and what he says, how he interacts with the girls we’re following of this story, etc.  This was one of the points I had to recollect after the initial shock of the film went away as I was driving home.  “Yeah, he really did a good job and I’m not making fun of him like I thought I’d be! … Wow, mind warp!” 

The dialogue of this film was incredibly written as well as delivered, which is what’s necessary to pull off perfection.  I couldn’t look away from this film and was just in shock with what I witnessed.  I tip my hat to you Harmony Korine for excellently and perfectly sucking us into this world that you’ve created!  I still can’t get that out of my head as to how entertained and fulfilled I was with this experience.  I just KNEW I was going to like it, as I’m working on creating a similar story myself, but nowhere near my expectations did I know I’d love this film THIS MUCH!  I was on edge with every scene that was necessary to inch us along and enjoy the experience!

It’s early in the year, fresh into the new season after celebrating the accomplishments of last year.  Unless 2013 just overloads me with so many amazing titles, mark my words, I expect Spring Breakers to make my year’s end list!  Again, it’s early, and who knows where the chips may fall.  All I can say now is that it’s amazing and I loved it!

Spring Breakers

Drama, 94 Minutes, R

Written & Directed by: Harmony Korine

Cast: James Franco, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, & Rachel Korine