Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers

Thought it was very often a beautifully made, engrossing film, albeit one that was a tad uneven. While some of the film's more memorable sequences come in the second half, it was the first forty minutes or so that I felt offered the strongest, most hypnotic film-making. The Terence Malick comparison isn't off the mark, albeit with neon soaked visuals, endless debauchery and much more nudity. There's a dreamlike feel to it, aesthetically rich and scored to a intense, dynamic soundtrack (constantly eerily punctuated by gunshots). Indeed, the audiovisual language of the film - reliant on echoes, recurrences and foreshadowing - is simply wonderful, and it's a flawlessly edited piece of work. Sorry, To The Wonder, this is easily the most vibrantly crafted film I've seen thus far this year.

When the film becomes more concerned with plot following Franco's entrance, I felt it took a bit of a tonal shift and didn't quite retain the dreamy atmosphere of what came before. Not to say it isn't engaging - it still looks & sounds gorgeous, and there's some brilliantly weird setpieces ). But some of the feud stuff is dare I suggest a little dull, and it is fairly predictable where the film is going. For a film whose presentation is so spectacularly jarring, the content probably isn't as provocative as it thinks it is. The narrative decision t
The film's relatively straightforward themes of excess and the American Dream runamuck are examined with tongue happily in cheek, and Franco's performance is hilariously off-the-wall. While some will undoubtedly find sections repetitive, IMO it all came together to craft a largely bewitching experience. Even if the plot is purposefully thin and the whole thing an exercise in draining, overwhelming excess, it's the kind of unmissable 'cinema' experience you're lucky to get once a year. The film's mood demands to be experienced in darkness of a theatre, and how wonderful that it has managed to sneak into multiplexes and hopefully catch many by surprise.