SPRING BREAKERS (2013) GUCCI MANE, SELENA GOMEZ & JAMES FRANCO (as Riff Raff?) DIR. BY HARMONY KORINE

s1ocki also otm

man, those kids behind us were so confused/angry

Eric H. do you think Korine's other stuff owes as much of an obvious debt to Malick...? Herzog is the other obvious reference point

xp

I guess my problem is I saw this w two Korine fans, and everyone I knew that saw it before were Korine fans.

That someone can exploit sex and violence to sell a movie is not a rarity. That the movie includes a few blurry montages does not make it artsy.

That someone can type words does not make them credible.

what mainstream director's work do you think this resembled - Katherine Bigelow? Michael Bay? Darren Aranofsky? Genuinely curious. I guess we can argue about the definition of "artsy" til the cows come home but Korine's aesthetic seems to be guided by predecessors and concerns that are largely outside of mainstream Hollywood (idk how mainstream you consider Malick, is he "artsy" enough for you?)

Don't know about Trash Humpers (still haven't seen it), but Herzog seems like the Korine 1.0 reference point. This is the upgrade.

I love this film. I don't think a sequel will be a good idea; like the sequels to other pretty good indie films (ginger snaps, american psycho) it's totally unnecessary and will likely abandon the art of the original for the trashy aspects.

lol this made enough money to get a sequel financed?!

artsy

that news was what precipitated the thread revive

s1ocki otm, full theater of kids got reaaaaaaaaal quiet real quick

precipitated the thread revive

oh right, sorry I got distracted immediately by seeing all those other names in that "article"

I don't know. It's a sad state of affairs when the best argument for a film is that 'they actually got away with having a big backing from Hollywood or whatever'. Um. no. Comparing it to other Hollywood/Blockbuster movies makes Spring Breakers seem very appealing. Put it in the category it belongs. If you do that, it fails miserably.

I mean, talk about the movie, not that Korine et al fooled Hollywood and mocked the fans it wanted to appeal to. If anything, that makes this movie even more crappy. You mocked kids who have a pretty low IQ level. Congrats.

Plus, I can imagine at some point this was pitched as a PG-13 Girls Gone Wild. "Sex sells, guys! Plus our audience loves dumbed down plots and eye candy. It's a no-brainer!"

Meh.

Are you guys really amazed that an R rated movie would shock Disney kids?

how does this movie mock its audience?

@shakey

anyone who thinks there is nothing challenging about this movie should have seen it in a theater full of confused selena gomez and vanessa hudgens fans.

― socki (s1ocki), Wednesday, May 7, 2014 10:26 PM (38 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

plus, i'll add there is a sense of mocking because of the movie's disingenuosness. I can't imagine Disney kids being too well-versed in irony or the so-called 'depth' of the message some purport it to have. At the end of the movie, it is just pure indulgence and goes into fantasy land trying to shock, which it also falls short of.

i purchased my ticket knowing full well that I was paying to see a Harmony Korine movie; majority of the audience I saw the movie with paid to see a James Franco and Vanessa Hudgens movie, and I honestly felt bad for them...the trailers were cool, that's why they were there, but how do you explain to a bunch of high schoolers who even if they are super into bikinis and guns that this REALLY isn't the movie you think it's going to be. i don't think anyone is *mocking* them itt

teenage audiences were hella confused by the movie. that's just a fact. no judgement.

i didn't say it was mocking them

its disingenuous to pretend this is somehow identical to other uh "hollywood" movies

xp

ya, but see vegemitegrrl's comment wrt HS'ers

idk there's a lot of things that aren't really that subversive to me, that I found funny, that would still seem somewhat subversive to me if I was 18. The gun-fellatio play, maybe.

i think i would've loved this movie in high school. it has plenty of bikinis and guns.

the cool preacher scene was so great and that particular xian subculture i've never seen before on film

its disingenuous to pretend this is somehow identical to other uh "hollywood" movies

My point isn't this at all. It's that to call this movie somehow a brave and unexpected thing for Hollywood to bankroll do is eyeroll.

I reserve the right to applaud any film that exposes mainstream audiences to approaches and techniques and ideas outside the norm, even if (maybe especially if) it does so under false pretenses. Challenging audiences is a good thing imo, people should try it more often.

As for the film itself, like I said, I felt like it worked, it achieved its goals - it's a dreamlike teengirl fantasy of transgression and wildness where nothing bad happens to them and they are in charge. It reflects the exaggerated, melodramatic, hormonally charged mindset of its protagonists. It's a mixture of childish fantasy (everything is colorful and SUPERHAPPY!) and a distorted vision of what it means to be an adult (sex/drugs/violence) all blended together in a garish, disorienting fashion. It goes over the top and is both funny and ridiculous in doing so. It maintains an atmosphere of being young and fucked up and all the hazy, nauseating, and sometimes seemingly profound impressions that go along with that. I've never been a teenage girl on spring break but this seems to capture that "I AM PARTYING OUT OF BOUNDS! LOOK AT MEEEE" vibe really really well.

xxp

I don't think this movie not being what teenage audiences expected = mocking the audience

Haneke mocks his audience. This film doesn't really address its audience directly.

that was kind of the draw to me, the things that read as entry-level subversive or shocking but are probably thing Harmony Korine imagines on his way to the toilet in the morning

akerlund, assuming he's not changed since I saw music videos he did and Spun, might be a good follow-up if he doesn't take it seriously! I got the feeling from Spun that his m.o. is saying "whooa, look how fucked up this is (isn't that kind of cool)" while spinning the camera around a lot

I mean, Spring Breakers 2, from the mind that brought you the music video for Prodigy's "smack my bitch up" sounds about right

But I can't imagine him getting the scenes like s1ocki mentioned right. Korine really did a good serene, yet still ridiculous, religious group

feel like debating what this movie is "about" is really poking it with the wrong stick

I don't even know if Korine really gives a shit about what his audience wants or thinks or expects, half the stuff he does I think is purely for his own amusement

I think there's also a disconnect in thinking Korine wants to be "artsy". I think dude has some social aspects he wants to convey but his love is trash

totally

i liked this movie a lot but i'm pretty sure it did not transcend hermeneutics xxp

anyway

SPRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG BREAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK

Teen Disney fans are not the entire audience for this. Or do you think they read that self-congratulatory Franco piece in Vice magazine?

so-called 'depth' of the message some purport it to have

I don't think this film has a "message". It's not a cautionary tale. It's so wildly unrealistic idk how anyone could come away with that.

xxp

Maybe the message is if you look a certain way you can get away w murder?

are you saying that perhaps Vice media consumers are also an audience? you don't say!

Korine does Vice's purported (original) aesthetic better than they do for sure

everything transcends hermeneutics if you take your hermeneutic shades off

afaict shakey mo called it an incongruous thing for Hollywood to bankroll and is otm, not like it is even that rare for it to happen but rare enough. xxxp yeah if anything it is surprisingly humane in its imagination. adam bruneau you sound like the nu christian preacher in the movie!!

lol this made enough money to get a sequel financed?!

― stadow shevens (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, May 7, 2014 5:49 PM (32 minutes ago) Bookmark

made its budget back six times over

I think dude has some social aspects he wants to convey but his love is trash

I don't entirely disagree w this. He does love trash, he probably would film a plastic bag swirling in the wind for 20 minutes lol. But his presentation and visual style feel like they owe more to 80s VHS artists and malick and herzog or, I dunno, Killer of Sheep and shit like that. His film vocabulary is not mainstream.

xp

made its budget back six times over

that is awesome. I like it when weirdos get paid!

"hollywood" doesn't bankroll anything

OK fine multinational megacorporation

what is wrong with everybody. who cares if the film is 'challenging' like that's some mark of honor or 'artsy'. if you want to transcend something transcend your tired discourse gramps.

it was a movie about feeling free, and at peace.

it spoke to people

he probably would film a plastic bag swirling in the wind for 20 minutes lol

that's for Mendes. Korine would film a human-sized plastic bag in which James Franco is trapped, Phantom Zone style, singing Britney's "I Wanna Go."

movie made me laugh & i left in a great mood what more do you need

sprang break forevah

foreeeevveeeerrrrrrrrr