'SPRING BREAKERS'

'SPRING BREAKERS' (R)(3 1/2 STARS)

Written and Directed by Harmony Korine
Actors: Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine, James Franco.

The movies I have seen in the past few months all seem to be made by a programmed robot or by comittee. Every single movie I have seen in the last few months are safe, familiar and there seems to be zero imagination in the writing or directing. I think this has been happening for years and I just want to go back to the late 70's and early 80's when I feel more eccentric movies that took chances came out. Movies with low budgets and "B" movies or genre films that were not afraid to go out on a limb and present dark material. That is why "Spring Breakers" is by far the best movie of the year so far because it is the only movie that feels different and braver than any movie that has come out since last December.

That is not to say that "Spring Breakers" will be loved by all, in fact I can see a lot of people walking out on it and hating it. That is what I love about the movies, there are movies that can excite certain people that not everyone in the World will like. I always feel guilty sometimes giving a movie a bad review because who knows, someone out there might like it and call it their own (unless the movie is just beyone bad). "Spring Breakers" is a fever dream of a movie that meanders, is stupid in spots and just is plain nuts most of the time. Though it is a movie like no other that feels like it has a voice and a personal touch that is missing from most movies these days. Harmony Korine has made many movies that have been polarizing and have been called self indulgent. Harmony Korine's style might be hated by some but at least he has guts and doesn't follow the status quo. There are no longer that many auteurs these days in the movies that put their own personal stamp on a movie like Korine does.

"Spring Breakers" might be labeled the movie where sweet, Disney stars Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens go wild and star in their first racy, adult movie. I have never watched them in anything else before and I really don't care if this is the movie that will shock their fans. I call it a fever dream of a movie because music plays a big part in this movie and the whole movie seems like it is a strange, dark dream or a twisted music video. Faith, Candy, Brit and Cotty are four young girls who want to go down to spring break so badly but they don't have enough money. Faith is a very good girl who we see going to a religious meeting but the rest of the girls will hold up a restaurant and it's customers and steal money to pay for their trip. The girls go down to the beach where myriads of drunk young men and women will go wild. The girls will get involved with a wannabe "Gangsta" rapper and thug named Alien played by James Franco. The movie then will double back into violence as the girls get in deeper with Alien.

Harmony Korine does such a great job at capturing the lunacy and realism of a spring break on the beaches of Florida. In fact it was so real that it brought back memories of my spring break trip to Florida that was so creepy, slimy, ugly and icky. I hated my spring break and I was amused at how much fun everybody seems to be having here of course until the next morning arrives. "Spring Breakers" has gotten some flack for it's extreme nudity even though the four main actresses are hardly naked at all. That is funny because a spring break movie without nudity would just be laughable. Also you know this movie is not to be taken too seriously when the lead characters spend the whole movie in bikinis even when they are taken to jail and taking part in the final bloodbath as they shoot some bad ass drug dealers with machine guns.

As you are reading this you probably can tell if if this your kind of movie. I am really into dark movies and cult movies are my favorite type of movie and this could become a cult classic. I also think that James Franco is hilarious, perfect and flawlessly slimy as Alien. This is my favorite James Franco performance so far because this is a fearless performance and Franco will be unrecognizable to those who don't know he is in this movie. He dissapears into his character making us cringe and making us become very uncomfortable. I was also very impressed by Selena Gomez's performance as Faith, this is a deep character in a movie full of more shallow characters and she is efffective here. Ashley Benson is also very appealing here as Brit and Vanessa Hudgens, while not as good as Gomez, is effective as her and Benson will take part in the most violent section of the movie.

I really couldn't figure out what I felt about this movie while watching this and this was a tough review to write. Though it did remind me of one of my favorite movies from the 80's "Foxes" with Jodie Foster. I saw that movie on cable when I was 12 and I was shocked, affected and stirred up by this dark movie and while "Spring Breakers" is not as deep as that teenage classic I could see it affecting a younger student of film. This is how you make a movie that isn't afraid to be too dark, violent, raunchy and out there. How many movies can you name that have women in their early 20's shooting up a bunch of drug dealers with machine guns in their bikinis? Isn't it refreshing that there are artists out there that make original and weird movies when week after week we get the same lame action movies, dumb romantic comedies and 3D fantasies that all look the same? Harmony Korine has made the first movie in decades that could become a cult classic.