Summary
When four high schoolers run away from their conservative homes to live it up over spring break, the idea of returning to their him drum lives pushes them to party harder and harder, rather than go home.
WARNING: This movie contains sexually explicit nudity, violence, rampant drug use, and swears.
For those that have the fortitude, “Spring Breakers,” is a gauntlet to run. A mind bending assault on your comfort.
The film begins as a typical, teen, raunchy road trip movie, sort of. As the film shares the histories of the three girls it will follow, there’s a dark edge to it.
They say many things we are used to hearing from teenagers. “I’m bored with life. There’s nothing to do on this town. I never see anything different.” It is the plight of the millennial. Seeing everything but never experiencing it.
As they leave their school and home behind for the sandy beach party, drug fueled, explosions of youth we call Spring Break, they grab life by the horns and do whatever they feel like doing. The film turns though, as they run dry on money and are pushed to either go big or go home, and none of them wants to go home.
How far into the storm of crime, drugs, and sex will they venture, before the familiarity of home calls them back? The answer is different for each of them.
So how is this movie different from the throngs of raunchy coming of age comedies?
FIRST OFF
...it’s not a straight comedy. There are funny moments but the film, as a whole, takes itself very seriously.
It doesn’t assume that these kids are going to want to go home once they get their rocks off. It asks, “how far are you willing to go?” and then looks down it’s nose at the kids who call it quits. This is a movie about the kids who think the kids at spring break are just playing at teenage rebellion.
SECOND OFF
...is the visual storytelling. In fact, the film highlights this difference by showing the first spring break party in exactly the way we are used to seeing it; big boobs splashed in beer on slow motion, beaded necklace bouncing dance parties, and the bright tourist drawing sun.
The rest of the time the film is dark, gritty, and splashed with neon excitement. When I use the word gritty, though, I do not mean, shaky cam, hard to follow action, as is so common in film today. I mean that it feels real and grounded. Nothing that happens in the film is so fantastic that you think, ’that would never really happen.”
That is a part of the power of this film. I can imagine real kids behaving this way.
THIRD OFF
...I want to highlight i this film are the subjects that emerge simply because of the casting. By casting Selena Gomez (“The Dead Don’t Die”) and Vanessa Hudgens (“Beastly”) the director introduces an inherent symbolism into the film.
The parallels between the Catholic school they attend in the film and the sort of projects they did as actresses in real life, are unmistakeable. I can certainly see why they would choose to do a project which focuses on young women getting tired of doing things their parents' or “the right” way, and venturing out to do as they have always wished they could.
Many a young female celebrity has this story. We’ve seen it with Britney Spears and Lindsey Lohan just to name a couple. At least with this film, Selena and Vanessa decide to do it once on screen rather than in their real lives with real consequences.
VERDICT
I think that the reason this film appealed to me as much as it did was that it spoke to a hunger. It may seem weird to see audiences to ascribe some deeper meaning to a film like this but I believe it is there. In this film all of the characters hunger for something greater and pursue it. Some give up that pursuit and others do not. There are parallels everywhere in our lives for that determination they express, whether in sports, academics, careers, or in spirituality.
While I may not agree with the thing these girls are after, I can’t help but wish I was as dedicated and uncompromising in pursuit of my ideals as they are in theirs.
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