It’s spring break vacation!!! I can’t wait to go swimming, play some Frisbee, and enjoy the sun! Let me just check outside first (before putting on my new swim trunks) and see how the weather’s looking before heading out;
The simplicity makes Spring Breakers plot sound formulaic; and at first it seems that way. Yet the more it progressed the more I realized the film was not going down the expected path, and by the end had enriched the simplistic concept far beyond any average film’s capacity. Spring Breakers deserves a lot of credit for taking one of the most unbearable types of people (the pretentious, teenage party girl), INCREASING their mean-spirited shallowness tenfold, and yet making them not only bearable to watch, but fascinating to observe. Now there’s two ways Korine accomplishes the impossible; the first is by diving into each girl’s psyche (analyzing their actions and motivations) and the second is to make them dangerous and genre savvy. Korine understands these girls (save for Faith) are villain protagonists and makes it clear by examining (instead of supporting) their actions through warped viewpoints on what they consider important and fun. The film uses nonlinear storytelling throughout; sometimes a scene is briefly played only to be returned to via flashbacks, while other times glimpses of future scenes are played before the payoff. Korine uses the unique style to examine their actions bit by bit, putting emphasis on why they’re acting in such a way. The interesting thing is that their plastic nature never goes away, instead remaining up till the end. Yet the examination of why these actions take place helped me to better understand the situation on a more personal level.
For how shallow they can be, the girls are shown to possess some dangerous genre savviness. As soon as they get bailed, Faith understands Alien’s generosity was not out of the kindness of his heart. Rather than wait, Faith wisely leaves back home before anything bad can happen. Despite not leaving with Faith, the other three girls are far from naïve. They’re well aware Alien’s intentions could lead to bad situations, but have lived such mundane lives for so long that the idea of danger and excitement absolutely thrills them. Their overpowering desire for an exhilarating life of anarchy (plus how far they’ll go for it) exposes these girls as truly being devious. They want riches, power, and ecstasy; and are willing to deal, rob, beat, torment, manipulate and even murder for it. By living up to their nicknames (devils), the girls’ characterization changes from being shallow party girls to psychotic, chaotic pleasure seekers; which understandably enough, makes for much more fascinating characters.
While there’s more I’d love to write about, I’m afraid it’d spoil too much if I did. Spring Breakers surprising twist after twist is highly refreshing; every time I've figured out a character’s plot role it goes and changes right on me. Observe the bedroom scene involving Alien, the girls and some guns; the uncertainty of what will occur plays up the tension and excitement to fantastic levels. To give these superficial characters such development takes true talent to put off; and while the film is purposely slow (often repeating scenes over and over in flashback format), the mesmerizing use of sound and illumination helps increase the effectiveness of these scenes to whole new levels. Spring Breakers can be looked at as a sluggishly dull, “vacation gone wrong” film starring a bunch of superficial girls; which is understandable. If given some time and patience however, Spring Breakers can also be about the examination of human life, its psyche and its actions; a strange film for that type of examination to come from, but the type I got none the less.
