This will make you feel old: it has been 18 years since Harmony Korine wrote “Kids” at the age of 21, with director Larry Clark, proving to be something of a firecracker in the midst of mid-90s indie cinema. The film was both hailed and denounced for its in-your-face depiction of sexually active and substance-abusing teenagers. Korine who is now 39, made his own directorial debut with 1998’s “Gummo,” and over the last 15 or so years has made films that (with the possible exception of “Mister Lonely”), push aesthetic & critical boundaries further and further, culminating in 2009’s “Trash Humpers,” a film shot on a VHS camcorder, featuring a cast in old-people masks generally trying to provoke the audience into walking out. A cast that included Harmony Korine and wife Rachel Korine. So where could he possibly go from there?
The plot in "Spring Breakers" is fairly simple, which just recently premiered in Venice on September 5th and September 7th, 2012 at The Toronto Film Festival is about Faith (Selena Gomez), Candy (Vanessa Hudgens), Brit (Ashley Benson) and Cotty (Rachel Korine) who are four lifelong friends at the same college campus. Lone brunette Faith is more straight-laced, and nominally Christian, while the others have more fearsome, hard-partying reputations.
They’re planning on heading to Florida for Spring Break, but are short on cash, and so to raise the additional funds, Candy, Brit and Cotty knock over a fast-food restaurant. The job goes off without a hitch, and they’re soon down south partying with the other boys and girls gone wild. The dream looks to be over, however, when they’re picked up on drugs charges by the cops.
They’re planning on heading to Florida for Spring Break, but are short on cash, and so to raise the additional funds, Candy, Brit and Cotty knock over a fast-food restaurant. The job goes off without a hitch, and they’re soon down south partying with the other boys and girls gone wild. The dream looks to be over, however, when they’re picked up on drugs charges by the cops.
But fortunately, they’ve come to the attention of local gangster/would-be-rapper Alien (Franco), who pays off their fines, and takes them under his wing, falling for Brit and Candy in the process. But when he comes into conflict with another dealer, his former best friend Archie (rapper Gucci Mane), which of the girls will stick out spring break by his side, and which will head back to college – or worse?
It’s clear that this is going to be something very different for Korine, especially with a cast that's recruited from the Disney A-List talent pool. It's reviewed that the film starts with a slow-motion opening sequence of topless co-eds drinking beer bongs on the beach that could be lifted straight from a “Girls Gone Wild” tape or a sleazy music video.
"Spring Breaker" is scheduled to open in the US on March 5th, 2013.
Till then, here is a sneak peak at what Mr. Korine has in store for us.
