Spring Breakers (2012)

Directed by: Harmony Korine
Country: USA

Review: Harmony Korine, the writer of Larry Clark’s emblematic movies about youth, “Kids” and “Ken Park”, presents us a new story that he directed himself, giving us a very somber idea of what a Spring Break may become, especially if we consider the unbalanced personality of its characters. Korine creates hypnotic and provocative images at the sound of hip-hop, to portray the story of four student girls who decide to break their monotony by robbing a restaurant in order to fulfill their whimsical urge of having real fun at spring break. In truth, their eagerness for action will be put to test after an encounter with Alien, a ruthless gangster whose honesty about himself left some of the girls even more excited. As usual, Korine’s writing was meant to shock us continually, but this time any attempt of making a psychological study was hampered by its own excesses. The film is too repetitive in its saturated images and torpid words, never reaching the depth wanted. This formulaic and too stylized approach was able to allure us occasionally for what was going on, but then came some moments of pure dullness, like when Alien sang a song by Britney Spears, showing his romantic side. "Spring Breakers" has not much to offer beyond cheap madness and a stylish presentation of the underworld of crime that rarely reached satisfactory levels.