Every
year there's a film that, for whatever reason (usually the stars),
gets
mainstream attention even though it's essentially
a festival film. So when Harmony
Korine's latest
caught
a wave of
notoriety
in American theaters after playing
Venice, it could almost be taken as a prank: a film that looks like
a crime romp where maybe, just maybe, Selena Gomez and Vanessa
Hudgens will make out, but really is an elliptical, self-reflexive nightmare of
warped American values. But as
the film entered its second half,
two
thoughts came to mind. First,
the iconography of the all-American spring break doesn't need to be
appropriated and
exaggerated by provocateurs—actual footage on MTV is far scarier than Korine's
film. And
second,
the
intersection of our economic system, popular culture, and moral
decrepitude has been examined
better by artists subtle enough to
not
use guns as penises or name the religious character "Faith".
But
if better writing could help ward off the aire of obviousness, the film's
point is made
effectively by
style:
the bright pastels and trance-like
editing are
intoxicating
(history written in neon),
and the emphasis on appearances
over psychology is a message in and
of
itself. What
I walked away with most is that the Scarface theme is now played out. A
more unsettling story, possibly hinted at by Korine, isn't that
hard-partying college students who want to continue their materialist
dream end up as violent criminals; it's that they end up in
white-collar jobs. Now that would be creepy.
3
out of 5 stars.
Spring Breakers is now out on DVD. It's really not that shocking.
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