Spring Breakers…WTF?!

It’s been two days since I’ve seen this movie and I still don’t think I’ve been able to wrap my head around it. I just don’t get it. I don’t understand how this movie got made…especially with this cast. I don’t understand who would say to these girls that being a part of this project is good for their careers. Maybe it’s just me but I just really didn’t like it. I guess I can understand that it would be appealing to make a movie that glorifies and horrifies the ritual that spring break as become in our culture. What I don’t understand is how people think this is that movie. To be completely honest the only thing I took away from the movie was “spring break…spring break forever” a line that James Franco’s character repeats about a million times. So many lines and shots were done multiple times throughout the movie that it really seems like it was just a Girls Gone Wild episode drawn out into hours of my life that I’ll never get back.

WARNING SPOILERS!

I will admit that my reasoning for seeing this movie was the cast. Even now that I’m an adult, I still enjoy some of the Disney projects that Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashely Benson have been a part of. I was curious to see these girls try to break the contraints of their Disney “good-girl” vibes. Especially with the amount of press that this film seems to be getting, I think I was given the totally wrong impression. Let’s start with the fact that Selena plays a girl named Faith who is your typical good girl. She just wants a change of pace from the everyday life that she seems to be stuck in. Besides the fact that she doesn’t partake in the original robbery that funds their little adventure, she is the only one that gets out of there before things get bad. Yes she “parties” and ends up in jail with the rest of them but honestly I don’t see how much this really sheds her good girl persona. Also she leaves the movie halfway through and never comes back. Moving on to Vanessa and Ashley… These two sure shed their good girl personas quickly. I think the only thing that wasn’t seen of these two was actual nudity (only the fourth girl who is the only unknown here goes to that length). They just didn’t make any sense to me. Especially in the end. I think that’s my hardest part understanding these girls. There was no resolution.

I do have to give major props to James Franco though. I’m not usually a fan (although I loved him as the Wizard in Oz the Great and Powerful). Besides being completely ridiculous and making everyone believe he was KFed, he delivered an intriguing performance that actually gave the movie something a little more than just Girls Gone Wild. He’s the comic relief of the movie which is disturbing for the fact that he’s into everything bad. By far the best part of the movie was when he was playing the piano and singing Britney Spears’ Everytime. I don’t know if the Britney Spears bits were intentional but it made me think back to when Crossroads came out. At the time she was the “good-girl” trying to grow up. Even though that movie tackles some pretty serious topics that made parents uncomfortable with letting their young daughters see it, there’s no comparison here. There’s much more disturbing and horrifying things in this movie that none of the young fans should be able to see.