Spring Breakers

I saw Spring Breakers yesterday. And I loved it.

To the people incredulously looking at me right now..."Why y'all acting spicious?" Okay, seriously though, this movie is a masterpiece. It's a masterpiece for calling out society's dark underbelly that we like to ignore and distance ourselves from. Spring Breakers is a satire, meaning that it exaggerates our society's problems to make us realize their potential damaging issues. Many people who have hated the movie hated it because they thought it was exploitative, sexist, and too "risque." The director, Harmony Korine, knows this. As a director, he has carefully crafted his movie to make a comment that society today IS too exploitative, sexist, and risque. For example, one person complained that James Franco's character, Alien, was racist and essentially "blackface." Well, in the movie he never actually states or believes that he is black. In one scene he actually talks about the difficulty of being white in an all-black neighborhood. So is it blackface? No. His mannerisms and character DO seem potentially offensive.  However, we all know that one or those few guys who we roll our eyes at because they try to put up this offensive image. James Franco's character is actually supposedly based off of real rapper Dangeruss, so this character does have it's basings in our society. So, his character is a COMMENT on the large numbers of white men in our society trying to put on a "gangster" attitude, not an endorsement of them.

Now on to the critique that gets to me the most. Some critics have complained that this movie is dangerous for women. Here's a thought: Spring Breakers is one of the best movies for women and feminism. When the cast was announced, many complained it was too risque and our dear Disney princesses, Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens, were throwing their young audience to the bus. First off, the movie's display of "risque" sexualized women is a COMMENT on our society's sexualization of women. When I told my mother I was going to this movie, her response as "Oh isn't it that slutty movie?" Disregarding my wish for the word "slut" to be forever removed from our language, I realized how twisted and manipulated our minds have become to feel the need to "slut-shame" anything that reveals "too much" of women. Of course, when people watch MTV, this type of sexualization is fine, but when they see it in a movie everyone gets up in arms. How about this- go to Panama City or another Spring Break hotspot and observe the drunken haze of our exploitative society and come back and try to tell me that Korine isn't showing us the reality and trying to make us see the problems with that reality. I think a major reason why some people were turned away from this movie was because it was too relatable and hit too close to home. In certain scenes, I was thinking "ya, i've see or done that" or "ya, I could be pushed to do that pretty easily." And that's scary. These things shouldn't be relatable, but they are. Korine wins here because he calls us out on this to make us recognize and understand our reality.

 As for Vanessa and Selena, frankly I am outraged that some people are upset with them for doing such a movie. As an actress, one of the most exciting parts of my job is the ability to try new types of acting and different types of roles. If I was stuck in the bubble gum world of Disney for years, you bet I would want to try something else. Also, when did you hear people becoming outraged at Zac Efron for breaking out of this role? No, you didn't. Girls in Disney are expected to stay there, yet it's the men who can be trailblazers in their careers. Korine notices this. There is a reason why he only called well-known actresses with innocent images to replace Emma Roberts when she dropped out of the movie. The girls' involvement in this movie is a COMMENT on Disney's exploitative nature of women. He knew Selena and Vanessa would garner a shocked response, and this allows us to see a side of our society that is damaging and hypocritical.

This movie also shows the alternative to society's misogynistic side. When the girls get into Alien's car, I was thinking "oh crap this is not ending well for them" and was imaging some terrible scene where Alien takes advantage of them. But that didn't happen. When Alien was showing Candy and Brit his guns, I was not expecting them to turn on him. When they threatened him, I wasn't expecting him to say "I think I just fell in love with y'all." When the gangster "battle" approached, I expected Alien to be the stronger one forcing the girls to help because misogynist society has made my instinct believe that a man would be braver and less scared. But Alien wasn't, he was afraid and (spoiler) died before they even really got started. I wasn't expecting Candy and Brit to continue on and kill his gangster foe. These scenes are all examples of how this movie shows women taking control of the system that degrades them and using what society sees as their "weakness" to fight back. I think the major thing the girls wanted when they were back in college was power and control. With Alien, they get to gain this power and fight women's exploited images. They use men's sexualization of women to their advantage. When they continue past Alien's dead body, that is an example of them taking control of the situation. Then, when they each give his dead lips one last kiss, I saw the kiss as a sign that they were happy with their power. These girls used their sexualization to get this power, and the last kiss was a small symbol of this manipulation. It's like "thanks Alien and society for sexualizing us, here is a small act to shove it up yours" type of attitude.
This movie made me laugh (James Franco's "look at my shyte" scene was hilarious), cry (thanks "Everytime," but seriously that was a brilliant scene), and made me THINK. I'm still contemplating this movie. I can't stop thinking about it. I could write pages about each scene. And that is one of the reasons it succeeds so well. "SPRING BREAK FOREVER B*TCHES!"

With love, 

Natasha