Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine, 2013)
“Just pretend it’s a fucking video game. Like you’re in a movie or something.”
Candy (Spring Breakers, 2012)
When Baudrillard travelled across the United States in the eighties, he contemplated deserts of emptiness, literally and metaphorically (1988: 61). He was astonished by the hyperrealist “cocktail scenery” that looked like an advertisement, made for another world (30-31). “It is Disneyland that is authentic here! The cinema and TV are America’s reality!” (101). Not only Baudrillard, but also the French in general tend to be in disgust of American culture and the importation of it. Two of their past ministers of culture warned for contamination, first in 1983 for Dallas and later, in 1992, for Jurassic Park. That same year, the opening of EuroDisney, a hyperrealistic paradise, got judged as a “cultural Tsjernobyl” by Mnouchkine, renowned stage director. Nevertheless, Spring Breakers, by all means the personification of the dreadful popular American culture, was called second best film of the year by the cultural authorities of Cahiers du Cinéma (2013).
Harmony Korine’s commentary on American mores and the ‘Yolo Generation’ confuses so many, not only because of its unconventional narrative but also its pretending to be non judgmental and authentic in a ‘direct cinema’ way. The hyperrealist grotesque and flashy cinematography of Debie practically gives the only clue that this is a movie and not a documentary. The thin, almost indefinable line between earnestness and satire demonstrates the influence of fictional hyperrealist media on the everyday truth. Another beautiful example is I’m Still Here (Affleck, 2010), a groundbreaking acting project of Joaquin Phoenix this time not taking place in the movies but in the real world. His bosom friend Casey Affleck documented the experiment where Phoenix reinvents himself as an outrageous version of the Hollywood ‘enfant terrible’ he seemed to be in the tabloids.
The director/writer Korine, known of other controversial projects like Kids (1995) and Gummo (1997), seems to take on a similar role of seriousness himself to support the purpose of his work and the actresses the movie depended on. As a spectator, it is difficult getting past the shock factor of nudity and violence and getting to the core of the satire without also paying too much attention to the controversial roles these teen idols impersonate. By using famous former Disney stars Vanessa Hudgens and Selena Gomez, “post-cinematic celebrities” as Shaviro would call them (2010:7-8), the spectator follows the characters on another level. They actually represent the typical ‘good girls gone bad’ in the feature but also in real life. The girls go on a cinematic spring break, which looks like an authentic journey of metafiction as well as a genius satire on popular youth culture. It is that external context and actuality that turns the movie into a unique timepiece with genuine looking performances.
Benoît Debie’s hyperrealist colours bewilder the spectator in the same disturbing manner as his previous work in Gaspar Noé’s Irréversible (2002) and Enter the Void (2009). The viewer splashes into mindboggling beach parties, the kind every American high school teenager has wet dreams about. ‘Booze’, breasts and excited faces get squeezed across the screen, alternated with what look like old handheld MTV spring break VHS fragments. Not to mention the soundtrack, a ‘guilty pleasure’ hit of commercial dub step king Skrillex. The rest of the accompanying music consists out of nostalgic pop of Britney Spears together with some one hit wonder hip-hop that elevate the empty emotional outings of the picture in a dramatic way.
Their story begins when the four young ladies plan on doing a robbery “like in a movie” to fund their spring break, that assumes to be a truly “spiritual” break from reality. When the girls retell their experience with the appropriate gestures and excitement like they saw it on television, flashbacks to the real facts contrast the depicted hyperrealist version. Never thinking about the consequences of their acts, they get caught for drinking and drugs and still cannot understand why they are not allowed to just having fun. Because in the end, that is what spring break is all about. Luckily Alien, the white gangster who does some rapping occasionally, rescues them out of jail but not from his limited amount of one-liners. James Franco’s character got in the fortunate fast lane of crime to the ‘American Dream’ and loves to show off his “shit”, namely an abundant wardrobe, decadent cosmetics and a wall of arms. His decadent and glorifying crime and drugs behaviour, including throwing money at ‘bitches’, come close to the wildest hip-hop video clips.
In the end, reality comes around the corner. One by one, they have to deal with it, the first one is Faith, whose religious background gets introduced in the film by some “amen amen amen” songs in a church group. Hyperreality fails to give the “spiritual break” that it promises, instead she develops a fear for the aimlessness and unpredictability of it. Ironically, Selena Gomez appeared to be really afraid of James Franco during the filming because he never stepped out of his role to immerse more intensely into his character. Cotty gets shot in a brief encounter with the other drug lord in town, as a result she cancels her spring break as well. A third time, we recognize true fear in Alien’s eyes when he realizes a final confrontation is the only way out of his depressingly boring and pointless existence. He does not want to give in to reality and its rules of survival. Despite he has “Scarface on repeat”, his ‘Biggie & Tupac’ style showdown ends in an anticlimax when the first bullet proves to be fatal. Spring Breakers is an instant cult hit and will prove to be a powerful time document of a self-destructive, shallow, excessive and decadent generation that is both tragic and funny.