The Coterie Flow: March 2013

Recently, as in today, I went to go see the highly anticipated Harmony Korine film. I give this movie a (sideways glance) because it approaches so many different themes, but it just did not come together in the right way. The theme becomes macabre through all of the partying, and may explore the problems of a hedonistic culture, but leaves much to be examined. So of course, SPOILER ALERT.

I'm not sure how to word this correctly or where to start, but Spring Breakers starts as you would expect it to, which is to say a big fucking party on the beach. As we delve into the film though, we learn of 4 friends who so desperately want to be a part of the fun and comradery of spring break.This leads 3 of them to rob a chicken shack to make the money, pretending like "it's a video game" or "in a movie." Faye, played by Selena Gomez, is the spiritual friend that does not participate in the robbery, but seems most enthusiastic to go on the trip so that she can find herself. As the situation quickly dissolves from partying to prison, the girls start hanging out with white rapper, Alien (James Franco). Faye returns home because she feels uncomfortable with him, while another friend leaves after being shot by Gucci Mane. By the end of the film, we are not left with friends with awesome memories from break, but a bloodbath left by 2 ski masked, bikini-laden college girls.

It is up to debate whether the film becomes a mockery of party culture, and the hedonist that teenagers become, but there are cinematic aspects that detract from it's greatest. There are scenes where the actions are repetitive, the dialogue is very empty and pointless (I don't know how many times I heard spring break), narration that seems very unneeded. Space seems to be filled by insignificance, which is what often happens in party movies (i.e. Hangover). Where the girls thought they would have the times of their lives, they end up with death and murder, which is just something most cannot relate to. As Faye laments, "this was not supposed to happen," but that's just for jail, which I'm sure you might expect for doing coke lines off people's bodies, and wasting liquor in a hotel. Faye seems to be shocked when she is taken to a pool hall where Alien has all of his black friends -- another racist issue in itself (see "How Racist is Spring Breakers) -- and decides to leave. I'm not sure what she was looking for, but of course it will not be anymore fun when all the other breakers go back to college. In between this, her messages to grandma express her excitement to find herself, and break away from boring everyday. She wants it to last forever, and her friends do too. This is Spring Break, though, of course not.

The friends that remain become involved in more dangerous behavior while living with Alien, eventually shooting up Gucci Mane and his friends. How did it arrive here? Where the Hangover goes completely over the top, so that people understand the events would probably never happen, Spring Breakers acts as if they could occur. College girls falling in with a rapper, and eventually committing violent crimes? Why yes, that is possible. It's the effect of people trying to hard to party and keep the fun alive. But it is not. I like to compare this to Swimming Pools by Kendrick Lamar, which successfully tells of the dangers of alcohol through a party song, while this tries to examine the ultimate end to going too hard. Most people will probably just blackout or end up in the hospital, not kill 20 people. These things just do not happen. This is the effect of an experimental film, and maybe it was successful by making people think, but maybe it just does so because it was weird. I might not understand because I've never seen such addictions to Spring Break and know the limitations of partying.

-REIIISTEEZ

The Coterie Flow

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Spring Breaaaaaaakkkkkk!

Thursday, March 21, 2013

The Harlem Shake

Monday, March 4, 2013

Kosher Culture, Ltd "The Shh Tee"