Ryan McNeil
Some people want to fool themselves. They want to believe that life begins at 10pm. They don’t believe in consequences and think that there’s nothing a little re-invention can’t fix. It’s a nice dream, especially nice in the way that it can even be attained every once in a while.
The problem with a dream though is that eventually, you need to wake up.
Four college friends are planning to go on spring break and get away from the boredom of their studies. Three of the girls – Brit, Candy, and Cotty (Ashley Benson, Vanessa Hudgens, and Rachel Korine) – have already mentally checked out and are ready to split town. The fourth, Faith (Selena Gomez), wants to be with her friends, but is clearly the odd duck given that her moral compass still works.
The girls don’t have enough money to pay for their vacation. For Brit, candy, and Cotty, the solution is to hold up a diner for the necessary cash. Upon hearing that the robbery is successful, Faith is taken aback, but shrugs it off and goes on the trip with them anyway.
Once they get to Florida, all seems sunny. They are surrounded by pounding music, copious amounts of flesh, and more sex, drugs, and booze than a Mötley Crüe tour. The girls view the situation as the ultimate escape, talking in wishful tones about how the grass is so much greener, the air is so much warmer, and how much they wish they could just stay where they are forever.
However, reality catches up with them when they are all busted for drug use during a party. Since none of them wants to call their parents and fess up to what they have done, they seem to be beyond help. That is until a rapping, drug dealing gangster named Alien (James Franco) comes to their aid and bails them out. This leads to the unlikeliest of unlikely friendships…one that will allow the girls to keep the ultimate escape going that little bit longer.
SPRING BREAKERS is all about absurdity: knowing that going in allows one to come away with the best experience with the film.
To begin with, spring break is complete absurdity (I say this as one who never participated growing up). Every year, boys and girls in their late teens and early twenties gather in some of the crummiest parts of a state that is largely about artifice. Upon arrival they check their morals at the gate and engage in a week-long rager that is equal parts debauchery, carnality, and escapism. It’s the young adult version of Las Vegas with a healthy dose of Mardi Gras.
What’s absurd is that it’s seen as some sort of release valve for the pressures of being a college student. What’s absurd is the warmth of where they gather to let loose distracts them from the fact that they’re still somewhere boring and seedy. And what’s most absurd is the complete disregard for the dangers these young men and women face.
That’s not to suggest that any spring break participant runs the risk of getting caught up with the likes of drug dealing gangsters like Alien. That’s where the film takes what is already absurd and pushes it to new levels of absurdity – and where the viewer has to say “Sure. Why not?”. Think about it; the spring break fairy tale is all about letting go of inhibitions – so why stop at drinking, partying, and sex. Why not start hanging out with a rapping gangster? Why not pose and play with loaded handguns? Why not hang in seedy clubs with people you don’t know? The answer to all of those questions is “because it’s irresponsible”, but as we’ve established, spring break is not about being responsible.
That’s the reality this film is working with – a “spring break forever” reality where young people getting a good education are bored with their lives. This reality allows them to see the getaway spot as a paradise (even though it’s not), and a welcome change from their boredom. They aren’t concerned with the fact that in a week or two the whole place will feel like the circus has left town, to them it’s the answer.
So no – SPRING BREAKERS doesn’t exist on the same plane of reality as what we experience. It’s more interested in letting Faith, Brit, Candy, and Cotty play “make-believe”. If we understand that, then we can laugh and shake our heads at just how wild their imaginations are. For that matter, we can also take great amusement from a character as dumb as Alien.
In any normal story, Alien would be seen as a cartoon and a cliché. Here though, he mirrors the girls perfectly. For them, a glamorous life involves using a stolen El Camino to hold up a diner with water guns and a sledgehammer. For Alien, a glamorous life involves cornrows, SCARFACE playing on repeat, and shorts in “every fuckin’ colour”. The girls have come to spring break in search of what they see in music videos and Girls Gone Wild – and wouldn’t you know it, that’s the life Alien lives. Just to prove it, when it comes time to solidify their friendship with an expression of emotion, these people bond over a Britney Spears ballad!
As I said earlier, it’s all about absurdity.
It’s important to realize that, and the way it reflects some actual absurdities in our society. Ignoring those points, and letting SPRING BREAKERS play out without recognizing its fever dream qualities is setting one’s self up for a rough ride. The film is not looking to provide commentary beyond the point that spring break is a petty and silly – and it chooses to comment with a high degree of self-awareness. Coming away from the movie, one might think that spring break an activity that should have been put out of its misery years ago.
Maybe someday someone will finally say “last call”. Until then though, the lewdness lives on.
I don’t even know how to discuss this movie with anyone anymore, I feel like they all saw something different. I just saw around 90 minutes of ugly filler.
I get that – I liked it, but I can totally how it would turn people off.
I feel like this is the most divided film I’ve read reviews on in a long time. People either clearly enjoyed it, or absolutely hated it. No middle ground.
It’s that sort of film.
I *will* say that a lot of audiences will go into it expecting one thing, and then will watch something totally different play out. It’s been marketed very curiously, so proceed with caution.
Just watched this and liked it quite a bit. I strongly disagree that the idea of spring break is absurd. It can be legitimately a nice pleasant escape from a boring college town and it’s really up to you to decide how irresponsible you get. Of course, the type of spring break depicted here is absurd, but spring break itself can be one of the most worthwhile experiences of your life. I speak from personal experience.
Sorry – I’m way late in responding to this comment. It got lost in the TIFF haze.
Maybe I should clarify; The idea of giving students a one week break is not absurd. Neither is the trend of students taking that week and getting out of Dodge.
What IS absurd – what continues to be absurd – is the way students treat that week as an excuse to live without consequence. What’s depicted here is both realistic and not;
Obviously, I don’t think anyone goes to Spring Break and uses it as an excuse to get in touch with their inner SCARFACE (“on repeat, yo!”). But I *do* believe that the spring break sex, drinking, and drug use has gone well past the tipping point…and that the scenes of those activities are pretty damned spot-on.