By Taylor Jensen/entertainment editor
Sex, drugs and Britney Spears make for an interesting combination in a film, even if writer/director Harmony Korine does embrace the freaky.
Spring Breakers tells the story of four girls who rob a restaurant to fund their spring break dreams and, after living it up in a quintessential MTV wasteland, are bailed out of jail by a bizarre rapper/drug dealer named Alien (James Franco), who extends their vacation and tests their moral limits.
This film is everything but shy in its approach. The girls are in bikinis throughout its entirety and even though they are portrayed as both capable and powerful individuals, they truly want to be objectified.
With countless shots of naked women, sexual acts and drinking, Korine not only depicts debauchery, he zooms in on it and then puts it in slow motion to make sure the audience doesn’t miss a second. He then adds the actors’ voices who attempt to glorify said self-indulgence.
At first, this appears genius. But then, less-than-groundbreaking words like “Spring break forever” are slowly but steadily repeated throughout the film, and the images that originally seemed artistic become increasingly disturbing and meaningless.
The characters Korine created are no doubt interesting but ultimately rely on abnormal mannerisms and overt actions to reveal their character. This wouldn’t be a problem if the movie wasn’t about becoming the person you really are, or in their case, the bad girls they are posing as.
In general, Korine took the time to actually think about Spring Breakers. The acting was believable, the music was incredible and the imagery was striking. It wants to mean something and make an impact but manages it only in small doses during the overall monotonous story.
As a result, it is art, but the tedious kind you don’t want to look at for too long because you start feeling dirty.
