Spring Breakers

This spiritual film for a world without God reveals to viewers a planet made up of dreams in music-video hyper-reality that can actually be tangible. It’s enough to just strike the right pose and time is suddenly transformed from an flow into unnoticeable a looping collage, where minutes do not tick by, but pulse like neon lights. However, this can all dissipate very rapidly – all it takes is to step out of the pose for a moment, but then there is now way back. On the cultural/generational surface, Korine’s DJ-like spinning isn’t subversive in such a way that it would result in an appealing gesture as in the previous generational film Kids, written by Korine, but exactly the opposite. Instead of a warning, Spring Breakers is an intoxicating and sensually intense temptation. It is a materialisation of the enchanted circle of hyped-up posing encouraged by pop culture and becomes a part of that. If gangstas have been watching Scarface on loop up to this point, now college kids will put on Spring Breakers as the ultimate demonstration of how to get properly pissed off. It’s absurd to read reflections whose writers take an elitist approach to defining themselves against a supposed audience that will leave the cinema annoyed or devastated because they had expected another Disney farce with Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens, and yet they enthusiastically chant, “Spring break forever, bitches.” They thus oddly illustrate that Korine is not in the position of a moraliser or an unbiased observer, or a biased connoisseur in the mould of John Waters. On the contrary, he represents for viewers the same kind of devil/enticer that Alien is for the film’s female protagonists. Those who don’t escape in time will give themselves over to him without reservation. (05/04/2013)

Admittedly, like many people, I was fooled by the trailer that promised a completely different sort of entertainment than what I eventually got. From the beginning, it looked like a celebration of the stupid American teen generation, which I didn’t even think I’d manage to watch until the end. That’s how idiotic it seemed at the beginning. Then you’re just waiting for the girls to run out of all the booze and drugs, then feel a little sorry that the spring break is over and then the final credits roll. But Korine goes against all your expectations and breaks them down one by one. After much deliberation, I'm giving it 4 stars. Of course, it has its weaker moments and it does get boring at times, but the way this work was perfectly thought out will hit you eventually (well, not everyone, I guess). Suddenly, you realize that it’s criticism of the current completely vacuous generation, getting high on drugs and booze, always looking for more thrills, while becoming more and more entangled in a vicious circle, with the following rule: whoever escapes it, wins. PS: The people behind the campaign for this movie (as well as those who did the casting) should receive at least half of the earnings. That's what got this movie into cinemas, and it definitely paid off. (27/06/2013)

Maybe a little more alternative than would be appropriate. From the audience's perspective, it’s a very confusing and "unpleasant" film that says quite a lot and even makes sense, but it’s poorly executed (the dramaturgy, the dialogues) and confusingly shot and unfinished (the editing, a number of wtf scenes) that only few will grasp and extract some of that film gold that is somewhere in there. Basically, a definition of today's era and youth, but the viewer could easily overlook it and end up thinking it was just mindless rubbish. (22/08/2013)

Enter the void of masturbation fantasies of lovers of beach bitch parties, tits, beer and guns aesthetics. A fluorescent dream on the edge between anti-thesis and interest in the artificial mythology of MTV clips. Hypnotic, engaging, provocative, subversive (Britney Spears meets Pussy Riot) and most importantly - James Franco was born for the role of the Alien. "This is the fuckin' American dream. This is my fuckin 'dream, y'all! All this sheeyit! Look at my sheeyit!" (30/03/2013)

The form slightly prevails over the content, which got me. Great, atmospheric music enhances the recurring shots, jumps in time continuity, and other elements that are used - sound suppression and its replacement with musical accompaniment, cutting from detailed shots to distant ones, etc. Everything leads to the fact that the film has exactly the right depressive tone that was supposed to affect the viewer. Exposed breasts and alcohol orgies, which accompany us throughout the film, are ultimately more of a mockery, underlining the fact that such entertainment is not really it. Selena Gomez, or rather her character, says one beautiful sentence: "I want to go home. I didn't imagine it like this. It's not fair, it shouldn't have been like this." It shouldn't have been like this, at least according to the posters, but the result is excellent. Surprisingly good. (12/11/2013)