Spring Breakers is the current hype movie travelling around the world wide web. It stars ex Disney sweethearts, and is helmed by the notoriously bizarre writer and director Harmony Korine. I’ve been in two minds about this movie for a while, and with its UK release imminent, are we staring into the eyes of groundbreaking cinema? Or just enough piece of American trash? Here’s a simple pros and cons list….

The Pros

Harmony Korine

Hands down, Korine is one of the strangest guys working in the Hollywood today, check his interview with Letterman after the release of the brilliantly whacky Gummo.

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He’s probably still most famous for being the pen behind the controversial Larry Clark film Kids, but I’ve been a fan of most of what I’ve seen of his output to this point – it’s always odd, striking and most certainly an acquired taste. He’s known for pushing his actors to their limits, and word has it this film is no different even keeping plot details from Gomez to make her fear real on screen.

Benoît Debie

A name you might not know, but he is the cinematographer behind one of the most fucked up scenes in cinema history. A 9 minute scene of brutality from the film Irreversible. Hopefully he can bring that visceral eye and create something really raw here.

James Franco

Let’s face it, James Franco is boss. 127 Hours rocked. He can do the serious shit, but then he can also bust out the comedy too. He’s a hefty scholar, always goes all out, and never takes himself too seriously. You can’t argue with a guy who openly mocks Justin Bieber too….

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The Femme Fatales

Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson – featured in the above video – and Rachel Korine. Most of the hype surrounding this film has to do with these girls. People want to see Disney stars doing fucked up shit, and what better person to ‘deflower’ them than Korine. God knows the lengths some of the girls went to get the roles, but all reports are it’s pretty no holds barred.

☛ Child Stars Going Crazy? – Justin Bieber Attacks Paparazzi Cameraman

Casting Real Life Characters

If you look at past Korine roles, he’s always taken a lot from the world around him, he wrote this in and around Spring Break at Daytona Beach, and cast Gucci Mane — by all reports playing someone pretty similar to his real life persona — and the crazy ‘we share everything’ ATL Twins — who probably need a post all to themselves on their antics.

The Cons

Skrillex

All sounded like a pretty insane, fun ride till the dropping of that name didn’t it!? But you read right, Skrillex is involved, ready and waiting to drop his putrid ‘beats’ left right and centre. He’s been left in charge of the score. He is assisted by Cliff Martinez – of Drive fame – so there is a glimmer of hope, but America’s obsession with the Skrillex’ brand of shite that they refer to as dubstep doesn’t offer much optimism.

☛ Skrillex Fails Again – Skrillex Accidentally Sets His Hair On Fire From The Candles On His Birthday Cake

The Neon Revival

With the release of Spring Breakers, and its chosen style. It’s inevitable that neon is going to be back for vengeance, and every teeny bobber the world over is going to be rocking Day-glow crop tops, twatish sun glasses and their best UV plimsoles……..

☛ Neon Defence – The Extremely Worrying Yet Really Cool World Of Non-Lethal Weapons

American Culture

Is it just me or does American culture seem more and more like it’s losing the plot? With TV like Honey Boo Boo, and music like dubstep I feel their mainstream is slipping into some very dangerous territory. Remember when you were a kid, and your school would do a German exchange trip? America is becoming those new Exchange Kids, Berlin’s now cool, and the joke has turned to laughing at the Yanks with their weird clothes, and strange taste in music. It’s becoming a crass culture and this movie could be one big amalgamation of that…..

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Well that’s that, in two weeks time the film will be out, and we’ll either be looking at a film that’s a dark, well thought out thrill ride, both comic and entertaining, and Korine’s legacy will continue…….Or we’ll be staring at the ass end of another terrible step towards the dystopias of Korine’s earlier films, hoping that the neon nightmares will soon pass, and ‘dubstep’ can, and will forever die.