Spring Breakers (2012)

SPRING BREAKERS  (2012)  ¢ ¢
    D: Harmony Korine
    James Franco, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens,
    Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine, Gucci Mane
Harmony Korine's leering take on springtime in Florida plays like a wet dream gone to the dark side. It's about some college girls who stage a robbery to finance their trip to St. Pete, where they quickly get caught up in the bacchanal: the coke-snorting, beer-bonging, tit-flashing, brain-negative frolic that spring break apparently wouldn't be spring break without. Then they get busted for dope - it's not real clear how - and hauled before a judge, still looking hot after a night in jail in their finest primary-color bikinis. A dope dealer played by James Franco bails them out, and one look at his teeth should be enough to scare them off, but, no, they stick around (all except the good-girl Christian one played by Selena Gomez), and pretty soon they're getting into real danger, playing with guns. Gomez plays the only girl in the bunch with anything resembling a personality. The other three (all blondes) are indistinguishable. Franco rips into his role for all it's worth, making you wonder how much was scripted and how much was improvised. At least you know he had a good time. Korine does know how to keep you on edge, but the story makes no sense at all, and it's unclear what his idea was here, or whether he even had one - some subversive commentary on the current state of the American dream, or a pseudo-hip gangsta flick with an order of skin on the side.