SPRING BREAKERS
BY CHRISTOPHER HASKELL
MARCH 25, 2013


“Spring Breakers” is far from perfect. Still, it does display enough potential to lead director Harmony Korine onto bigger and better things, the likes we’ve seen from many up-and-coming directors, specifically the recent rise of director Nicolas Winding Refn. It is then interesting that Korine uses the same composer, Cliff Martinez (along with Skrillex, who produced the best soundtrack this year), as Refn’s “Drive,” which banks some of its success off the composer’s particular brand of the soundtrack.
Seeing just the name Harmony Korine, I assumed the director was female, which made me feel better about the depiction of women, half-and fully- naked, partying like an episode of “Girls Gone Wild,” almost to the point of making the viewer uncomfortable. Attribute some of this to the social commentary on a particular generation, but I feel a female’s perspective on the subject would have held more weight.
Ashley Benson, Vanessa Hudgens, and Selena Gomez take significant steps to rebrand themselves out of their comfort zones. They are no longer the Disney generation, but flesh-and-blood, sexual beings, and believe me, they are sexual from scene one until the very end. James Franco also helps the film stay grounded, offering some of the most poetic portions of the film. Although the shotgun transition sounds are often out of place and the repetitive, echoing voice-over is often unwarranted, enough is going for “Spring Breakers” to make it an independent success.


RELEASE DATE
March 22, 2013
DIRECTOR
Harmony Korine
WRITTEN BY
Harmony Korine
STUDIO
A24
R
(for strong sexual content, language, nudity, drug use and violence throughout)
CRIME
DRAMA
93 minutes






CINEMATOGRAPHER
Benoît Debie
COMPOSER
Skrillex
Cliff Martinez
EDITOR
Douglas Crise
CAST
James Franco
Selena Gomez
Vanessa Hudgens
Ashley Benson
Rachel Korine
Gucci Mane
Jeff Jarrett
PRODUCED BY
Chris Hanley
Jordan Gertner
David Zander
Charles-Marie Anthonioz
BUDGET
$5 million
