What a strange, weird, beautiful little movie this is. The story of three young woman (whom, I guess are called Britt, Cotty and Candy- though to be honest I think I only caught Candy's name of this particular threesome) who take their innocent, religious bestie down to Florida- her name is Faith only to take the concept of a wild week of fun that is Spring Break down a hedonistic and dangerous hole to places you don't honestly expect.
However, Britt, Cotty and Candy (Ashley Bensen, Vanessa Hudgens and Rachel Korine) have a problem. They're bored of the monotony of campus life and they're ready to go have some fun in Florida and they're willing to do whatever it takes to get there. As it turns out, they're a little short of cash so just like that, the movie takes a left turn down crazy lane as they rob a restaurant using nothing but squirt guns and bad attitudes. Faith (Selena Gomez) is shocked by their crime but she's looking to break out and head to Florida as well so she goes along for the ride.
Once they get there, their hoped for journey of self-discovery seems to be everything they've wanted and more. They meet people, they enjoy every excess of Spring Break they can and they all feel freer than ever before- until they get arrested and thrown into jail after their party gets busted. (Boobs, booze and drugs are all on display here- apparently the ladies move quickly, graduating from marijuana and heading right to cocaine.) It looks like the party is over until a local gangster/would be rapper by the name of Alien (James Franco) bails them out.
Faith becomes increasingly uncomfortable at their new, dangerous surroundings (plus, if someone with James Franco's set of gold-encrusted teeth was constantly leering at me, I'd be a little creeped out too) and pleads with Britt, Cotty and Candy to return home with her. When they refuse, Faith goes home without them and soon the threesome are drawn into Alien's life of crime. When Alien's excess attracts the ire of a local rival, Arch (Gucci Mane), a drive-by shooting results and Cotty gets shot in the arm. That seems to be the wake-up call she needs because she too goes home.
Britt and Candy are left with Alien and soon their relationship becomes sexual in nature and they prepare for a final bloody showdown with Arch and his henchman. Alien gets shot almost immediately, but the duo in pink ski masks storms the mansion, killing everybody, including Arch before kissing Alien's dead body goodbye and driving off into the sunset in Arch's fancy new car. Presumably, they're heading home as well.
Sounds pretty messed up? Well, it was pretty messed up. It was also beautiful- and I mean that in the artistic sense not in the 'oh, the excess of ridiculous shit going on is so freeing and wonderful.' No, Director Harmony Korine paints with a wonderful, trippy neon color palate. Colors seem more vivid in this movie and they pop out at you in the most unexpected of places. At times, it really felt like you were on an acid trip or something. (Not that I have experience with that.) And there were lots of slow-motion shows of bouncing naked breasts and beer bongs intercut with what was either actual Spring Break footage from back in the day or some cleverly messed up footage from the movie that was designed to look like it was from 1994. So from a cinematographic point of view, this movie rocked. Beautiful little movie.
Problem is, I'm still not entirely sure what it was trying to say. Was it saying kids are so empty, so bored and so trapped today that the only remedy to ensure their sanity is ludicrous amounts of excess? Was it some weird, Reefer Madness style social commentary on the youth of today? It's not entirely clear. The movie itself seems to be peeking around the corner from saying something but doesn't seem to actually want to say it. As a result it seemed slightly unfocused in parts- at least to me.
Overall: Ludicrous excess and beautiful cinematography and neon colors everywhere reminded me a little of Drive for some reason- but overall I suppose the movie was decent enough. The whole wild partying, drink til you're ridiculous, run around with no shirt on thing was an alien concept to me even when I was in college- the appeal remains lacking even today. Credit though, to James Franco for turning in an almost unrecognizable performance as Alien and if Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens were looking to break out of their squeaky clean Disney Channel images, they've taken a good first step. (The fact that Gomez looks about 12 throughout this movie only adds to the creepiness in parts.) I'd say ** 1/2 out of **** though. It looks beautiful but it doesn't seem to be saying much of anything at all. But maybe that's the point.
It all feels like Harmony Korine traveled to Spring Break and brought his camera along for the ride, showing us what he found there. It all feels very real and works. Good review Tom.
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