Film Spring Breakers

[Kenickie]

so happy you were quick to see this! i knew you would be. but in the back of my mind, i was dreading the idea that you might be busy and not get to see it for a while.


i'm not sure i agree with this interpretation. i get where it is coming from. and glancing at other reviews online, you are not alone.

[spoil]the final hit scene is not as brutal as i would have liked. i wanted blood to spray, bits of brain and skull, bones splintering. not someone falling into a pool and some blood in the water. that said, the unwavering of their assault, then going back to kiss alien's body adds depth and ambiguity to the film.[/spoil] taking it a step above being only well styled pulp.[spoil] i think final two "chickies" do love alien/allen, and it is mutual.[/spoil] i don't think it is a horror film. at least not on all levels.

in my original post, i was close to adding a disclaimer concerning my critique of gomez and the scene you mention. that is certainly her shining moment as an actress. yes, i was crawling out of my skin--as intended. [spoil]there is always a clear predator aspect to franco's character. other aspects of his character are also always there--further exposed as the film progresses.[/spoil]


4/5 stars is a fantastic movie in my book. also my scale is sliding, depending on my expectations of the writer and director. meaning this is 4/5 for a korine film, leaving general films in the dust. i'm sure we will have plenty to discuss on this one. at the moment, neither of us have more than a first impression. currently, i cannot say it competes with Kids nor Gummo.

pfft shit girl, you knew i was all over this, i wasn't going to let you be alone in this! towards the end of the movie, i wasn't sure what was going to happen. [spoil]but after the threesome in the pool you kinda got it. apparently vanessa hudgens was so traumatized by the experience that she has said she will never have sex or be naked on film ever again. i agree about the final shootout, i wish there was more blood. also the music was wrong, but maybe i'm just misremembering. i also don't know how much i agree with Britt and Candy really loving Alien. i don't think there was any doubt that he was going to die as soon as they got off the boat, and i don't think the girls had any illusions either. or maybe they did love him and he was just born to die. he was important to them, as a catalyst for who they were on the way to becoming as soon as they thought about robbing the chicken shack. Britt and Candy were always the dangerous ones, the real bad ones. Britt especially. Ripping bongs watching My Little Pony friendship is magic while your roommate is passed out on her drawings of unicorns. American girls. [/spoil]

The New Yorker review calls Alien "menacingly charming." Yeah, pretty much. I think it's a horror film in the same sort of way Hard Candy was a horror film to me. The American Nightmare, you know? These girls in their safe little Oxford Mississippi looking tiny college and hungry and itching for adventure. Discovering that they have power, no matter how many times everyone says they don't because they are just pretty little girls. they want money and pussy and cars. except for faith. faith just wants to have fun. she's important to keep the film from spinning too far away into insanity. faith is the "real girl". [spoil]that was a bad thing that you did. but i'm glad you did it.[/spoil] that too with cotty and her [spoil]gunshot wound.[/spoil] the first part of the movie was very close to home for me. window into girl soul over there. the pot and waking up your dorm mate and dancing in the hallway and britney spears songs and showing your love for your friends in a way that is sexual in an innocent way.

i think it's nothing like Kids or Gummo, and i've told everyone who wants to see Spring Breakers to ignore both those movies when watching Spring Breakers. I slept on it, and it's my second favourite movie of all time, still behind Wonder Boys. Imma Britt kinda girl, although Candy is lookin' pretty fit. I need all the bathing suits. The sweatpants. that say DTF. all but two of the previews before the movie started had CROWN ON THE GROUND playing. you guys, it's like a four year old song. get on my level. but Sofia & Bling Ring earned it so I ain't madatcha.




interviewer: so how did you meet your wife? she's a bit younger than you, isn't she?
korine: yeah well i met her 10 - i mean, 8 years ago at a party.

 

[Kenickie]

also, what the fuck, alien and candy and brit [spoil]with their gun dicks.[/spoil] a pretty stand out moment for me.

annnnnd this one

 

[hydroazuanacaine]

i've told everyone who wants to see Spring Breakers to ignore both those movies when watching Spring Breakers.

excellent advice.


i was actually thinking about word choice as i was trying to fall asleep the night after making that post. take a flexible definition of "love." then apply this...

[spoil]i don't think there was any doubt that he was going to die as soon as they got off the boat, and i don't think the girls had any illusions either. or maybe they did love him and he was just born to die. he was important to them, as a catalyst for who they were on the way to becoming as soon as they thought about robbing the chicken shack. Britt and Candy were always the dangerous ones, the real bad ones.[/spoil]

to this...

and that maybe they can lead to happiness.

add "...for some."

and that's what i am getting at.

[spoil]i agree there is little doubt alien is going to die. for alien, who is coming to terms with the end as they settle on the plan. for the girls, who see he is realizing his end and in result that he "is scared," "is afraid." and for the audience, who gets it with alien's alone moment in kitchen. or at the piano. maybe it clicks for different people at different times. for you, the final fuck farewell. for me, when he held the machine pistols to check the chambers in the kitchen. i guess. because i saw it once blotto and then again the next morning, i am not going to try to put a finger on that. i think those are moments that harmony is clearly indicating alien's imminent end to the audience.[/spoil]

there isn't any noise in fiction. no one is watching them. everything is settled. [spoil]they kiss him goodbye.[/spoil]

[spoil]then they are leaving. without alien, they don't have a reason to stay in st. petersburg. their gang-specific masks are discarded in the water. not moving on to "do the right thing"--they leave in the stolen lambo. leaving to exert their power somewhere else. to live as their realized identities where they consider to be home. the repetition of "we really found ourselves here" or something along those lines. faith comes to the full realization of who she is. the two girls who facefuck alien with the pistols--one of the film's great scenes, despite being a cliche--realize who they are as well. they are bad. i'm pretty sure alien has a line supporting this as well. saying good isn't who he is. he embraces being bad.[/spoil] maybe that's another idea explored in the film. that a universal definition of "love" and "happiness" does not exist; it is individual dependent.

oh, and as of now, the [spoil]chicken shack robbery[/spoil] is by far my favorite scene. there is significance to the last individual, beyond a nod to Pulp Fiction.

too bad vanessa was or claims to have been so traumatized by that scene. i think she is good in that role. what did she think doing a harmony korine sex scene was going to be like?

and fuckyeah about Sleigh Bells and the trailers! i was gonna mention that in the F&T social thread. i plugged my ears, closed my eyes, and hummed for The Bling Ring trailer, but i heard the song before i realized what the trailer was for. and i do not remember the other movie, but i definitely took note that Sleigh Bells was used twice in the same series of trailers.

interviewer: so how did you meet your wife? she's a bit younger than you, isn't she?
korine: yeah well i met her 10 - i mean, 8 years ago at a party.

i saw that blurb on youtube or something. he's said worse. one of my favorite interview moments with him is where he mentions his growing disconnect from youth culture since writing Kids. says he doesn't really hang out with teenagers anymore. then, about a half hour into zoomed-in interview footage, the camera zooms out and he mentions, "well, except for these two girls."


that disney gif is great. one of many to come from this film.

last edit... did i just miss it and it's out of stock, or whythefuck does opening ceremony not have the ski mask for sale? i'd pay a stupid amount of money for it. not for a knockoff, not for a beanie version--for an exact replica of the ones from the film. if someone finds one, my goodness, please post a link in the fashion thread.

 

[Kenickie]

[spoil]i agree there is little doubt alien is going to die. for alien, who is coming to terms with the end as they settle on the plan. for the girls, who see he is realizing his end and in result that he "is scared," "is afraid." and for the audience, who gets it with alien's alone moment in kitchen. or at the piano. maybe it clicks for different people at different times. for you, the final fuck farewell. for me, when he held the machine pistols to check the chambers in the kitchen. i guess. because i saw it once blotto and then again the next morning, i am not going to try to put a finger on that. i think those are moments that harmony is clearly indicating alien's imminent end to the audience.[/spoil]

i also think i got it when he just keeps repeating [spoil]i'm going to kill my best friend, my best friend, my best friend.[/spoil]

[spoil]then they are leaving. without alien, they don't have a reason to stay in st. petersburg. their gang-specific masks are discarded in the water. not moving on to "do the right thing"--they leave in the stolen lambo. leaving to exert their power somewhere else. to live as their realized identities where they consider to be home. the repetition of "we really found ourselves here" or something along those lines. faith comes to the full realization of who she is. the two girls who facefuck alien with the pistols--one of the film's great scenes, despite being a cliche--realize who they are as well. they are bad. i'm pretty sure alien has a line supporting this as well. saying good isn't who he is. he embraces being bad.[/spoil] maybe that's another idea explored in the film. that a universal definition of "love" and "happiness" does not exist; it is individual dependent.

i agree with this -- but what about cotty? who is she? she is [spoil]almost forcibly removed when she gets shot. they couldn't have continued with her injured, but what if she refused to leave alien & the gang?[/spoil]

oh, and as of now, the [spoil]chicken shack robbery[/spoil] is by far my favorite scene. there is significance to the last individual, beyond a nod to Pulp Fiction.

i absolutely loved it. the way it was shot, the music, cotty's heavy breathing as she drives. very very awesome.

too bad vanessa was or claims to have been so traumatized by that scene. i think she is good in that role. what did she think doing a harmony korine sex scene was going to be like?

i don't know. he apparently had a bad habit of keeping things from them so that their responses would be more "real". [spoil]he said he didn't tell the girls how they would be 'arrested' at the party, and selena gomez was panicking in her bikini against the cop car in handcuffs while all these real (because those people from the party are mostly REAL spring breakers) stared and catcalled. so maybe vanessa didn't know what she was getting into - entirely.[/spoil]

and fuckyeah about Sleigh Bells and the trailers! i was gonna mention that in the F&T social thread. i plugged my ears, closed my eyes, and hummed for The Bling Ring trailer, but i heard the song before i realized what the trailer was for. and i do not remember the other movie, but i definitely took note that Sleigh Bells was used twice in the same series of trailers.

Kick Ass 2 & Pain & Gain, which apparently is a true story like Bling Ring. Sleigh Bells = For those TRUE stories.

i saw that blurb on youtube or something. he's said worse. one of my favorite interview moments with him is where he mentions his growing disconnect from youth culture since writing Kids. says he doesn't really hang out with teenagers anymore. then, about a half hour into zoomed-in interview footage, the camera zooms out and he mentions, "well, except for these two girls."

boss.

 

[Kenickie]

last edit... did i just miss it and it's out of stock, or whythefuck does opening ceremony not have the ski mask for sale? i'd pay a stupid amount of money for it. not for a knockoff, not for a beanie version--for an exact replica of the ones from the film. if someone finds one, my goodness, please post a link in the fashion thread.

i do not think they even made them for opening ceremony. i think it's just the shirts and shit which is a CRAZY shame because i need the tiger bathing suit and down to fuck sweatpants like yesterday. google search is fucking impossible for such things.

 

[hydroazuanacaine]

what about cotty? who is she? she is [spoil]almost forcibly removed when she gets shot. they couldn't have continued with her injured, but what if she refused to leave alien & the gang?[/spoil]

i gotta call it a night, but i have theories about cotty's character. concerning both what was in film and what i think ended up on the editing room floor. there are balloons and seco/benzo-looking pill bottles on that awesome poster that are not included the theatrical cut of the movie. she sure sleeps through a lot. i have a bit more to say about this. a post for tomorrow.

which is a CRAZY shame

right! damn.



fuckit, as long as we're here. i think she represents a lost middle. she does not have the direction of faith, nor that of candy and britt. she has no moral direction, nor ruthless code and drive. as many bluelighters know, there are alternates to both the good life and the bad life--opting out. she is a passenger. she does not determine her direction. there is a lot of drug use in the film to not include itch and benzos. i hear they were really trying hard to avoid NR/NC-17. i also think harmony was shooting hard to keep to an hour and a half. cocaine and alcohol were more in theme with the film. junkies use the bathroom, not a stripper's tits. she didn't escape with faith because she did not have that drive; she did not stay hard because she didn't have that drive. external influences determined cotty's direction.

 

[Kenickie]

i gotta call it a night, but i have theories about cotty's character. concerning both what was in film and what i think ended up on the editing room floor. there are balloons and seco/benzo-looking pill bottles on that awesome poster that are not included the theatrical cut of the movie. she sure sleeps through a lot. i have a bit more to say about this. a post for tomorrow.

fuck! that makes sense. damnit. cotty is supposed to be the "sportiest" of all of them, and besides the fact that it's harmony's 26 year old wife, she seems like the oldest, like the older sister. i can see [spoil]faith going home and living her life somewhat normally and cotty quickly ODing after her return. but who knows?[/spoil]

some things stay with you forever

 

[Kenickie]

STOP FUCKING EDITING AFTER I POST HYDRO YOU'RE DRIVING ME INSANE.

fuck!

 

[hydroazuanacaine]

i hate the habit too. but i can't help it. i need to edit, and i need a copy to edit. like, all my posts are edited. i use message boards wrong. anyway, we will continue later this week. maybe even a few other posters will weigh in.

night!

 

[hydroazuanacaine]

numbie!

 

[Kenickie]

are we still the only ones who have seen this??

 

[His Name Is Frank]

are we still the only ones who have seen this??

Looks like the inside of my brain when I'm having sex or fapping. I can never focus.

 

[jam uh weezy]

can't wait to see this one.