Film Review: Spring Breakers (18), (U.S.A. 2012) (Director: Harmony Korine), Friday 05.04.2013 18:30, The Cameo Cinema, Screen One, Edinburgh

I was curious to see this due to who it is directed by, otherwise I would have had no interest. I first knew of Harmony Korine as he wrote the screenplay for 'Kids' (1995), he then amongst other works directed 'Gummo' (1997) & 'Julien Donkey Boy' (1999). Kids is an amazingly frank exploration of the dire circumstances adolescents can land themselves in due to a mixture of boredom and naivety. Gummo is an intriguing textural non-narrative tale of a semi-rural community's life in the aftermath of a tornado. Julien Donkey Boy's lead character has paranoid schizophrenia and the story has the suggestion of insect, I regard it as the finest film regarding mental health I have seen.  

The film concerns four female college girls who are desperate to leave their boring lives to go to that shiny and shallow nihilistic U.S. of A. institution of 'Spring Break'. They don't have enough cash to get there so three (one of which acting as the getaway driver) of the four resort to violent means. Once getting to Florida they enter into non-stop debortuary until they get arrested and the fun ends. The film then takes a turn, as they are bailed out by a 'wigger' gangster. They are invited to join him to have some fun, and shortly after this, one the member of the group, who was not involved in the hold-up decides to leave as was not comfortable. Harmony Korine has said that this was deliberate to the plot at this point, he saw all four girls as elements of the same being and morality leaves, leaving the others to more unrestrained excess. A while later and a further incident occurs and another of the group (the one who was the getaway driver) leaves; they had looked disinterested in a lot of the silliness for some time. Leaving the two who had been excessively violent in the hold-up to have their fun with the gangster. I was expecting some kind of redemptive realisation to occur to the two girls who were left before the end of the film, this did not arrive. The ending was pleasingly ambiguous and left no easy answers.

The film has very styalised look and it feels saturated with light. Visually it is very intriguing. It uses jumps, repetition of key dialogue and snatches of images to appear almost trance like in places. The film felt to be a very well made and good film. Having said this I don't feel as though I actually liked it as all of the characters are people I would commonly have no interest in, therefore could not care what happened to them and could not invest in the film. I don't feel this to be as good as Harmony's earlier work though it is still without a moments hesitation a credible piece.

Rating: 9/10.