Movie Review - Spring Breakers

Wow, this is going to be a tough one to review.  Why you ask?  Because I still don't know exactly how I feel about it.  That may be a point in the movie's favour because, from what I got, it is a movie designed from the ground up to make you feel uncomfortable.

Now the following summary of the setup actually covers almost half of the movie, so mild spoiler warning okay.

The movie sees a group of friends, Faith (Selena Gomez), Candy (Vanessa Hudgens), Brit (Ashley Benson) and Cotty (Rachel Korine) desperate to escape their boring college town and head off for the party time at spring break.  Unfortunately they are very low on cash so they do the only sensible thing and hold up a diner with water pistols and a sledge hammer.  After much partying and plenty of deep and meaningful moments they are arrested after a drug fueled mega party that completely trashes a motel room.  Luckily friendly rapper and gangster Alien (James Franco) turns up to bail them out.

From the very outset this film aims to misdirect you.  The opening sequence has more drinking, skimpy clothing and bare breasts than nearly any other movie I have seen in recent times.  It seems to scream "T and A party movie ahead".  There is also plenty of not so subtle suggestions that there will be a plethora of sexy shenanigans.  We soon find out this is a movie that makes liberal use of the abrupt cut to another scene, usually vastly different from what has just been shown.  The first abrupt cut takes us to the boring college town and some very religious classes.  There is no subtlety about one of the characters being named Faith.

The way this movie swings from one extreme to the other, and its incredibly stylised visuals and camera work really seems designed to keep the viewer as unsure as possible.  The characters themselves also vary between different facets of their personalities and it is almost impossible to keep track of their intentions or motives.  Pretty much no one in this movie is likeable, which is understandable since most of the performances do seem to be designed to make the viewer uncomfortable.  If there was an Oscar for "actor portraying the most unlikeable sleazy scumball" then James Franco would be the unchallenged winner.

As to whether I can recommend Spring Breakers... well that is a tough call.  I have had a bit of a browse around the net and it appears to be a very polarising movie.  My take is that it is a movie about escaping to some mystical promised land, only what you find when you get there is very different to what you believed.  By having the four girls as the main characters you get to see different reactions, and outcomes, to the events as they unfold and they do lead to some poignant moments.  There are also quite a few scenes in the film that almost seem religious in their intent.  Temptation features heavily, as does the consequences for those who resist, or succumb.

In the end I am going to have to let you take what you can from this review and decide for yourselves.  Again, it is a very difficult film to watch which I believe is the intention.  So if you are up for a movie that is deliberately trying to challenge you then by all means give Spring Breakers a try, just don't say I didn't warn you.

In a word - Stuff