Spring Breakers proves wildly entertaining

If you love spring break, partying, and Britney Spears, go watch Spring Breakers now. If you hate spring break, partying, and Britney Spears, go watch Spring Breakers now. Go straight to the nearest theater playing it. Even if that means taking the 61D all the way to the Waterfront in this endlessly miserable Pittsburgh weather, it’s time better spent than sitting in your bed whilst having a Vampire Diaries marathon with a jar of Nutella in your hands.

Spring Breakers is the latest project by controversial director Harmony Korine. Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, and the otherwise-obscure Rachel Korine (wife of the director) star as four bored college girls who just want to have fun. However, their idea of fun entails stealing a car to rob a local Chicken Shack, going to insane parties, and getting tied up with some messy drug dealers. James Franco plays one such drug dealer named Alien who is incredibly suspicious, yet declares himself a “gangster with a heart of gold.” Clad with absurdly questionable tattoos, grills, and cornrows, Franco decides to take these four girls — who seem too dazed to be suspicious of the fact that he is a dangerous drug dealer — under his wing. The exception is Gomez’s character Faith, who somewhat serves as the moral compass of the posse. But when Franco plays Britney Spears’ “Everytime” for the girls on his grand piano, it is enough to win everyone’s trust and love.

Another great reason to watch this movie is rapper Gucci Mane, who stars as rival drug dealer Big Arch. The man wouldn’t even take off his ice cream cone chains for the movie — but I suppose that it helped bring out his character. The rapper honestly didn’t even have to act; he was method acting even more than Franco simply by impersonating himself. I guess that’s all you can ask from a fading rapper clutching at his last minutes of fame by the chains.

But don’t assume this is a just a vapid intersection of Project X and Girls Gone Wild. Neither is it an exploitation of Disney stars. The film makes a very dark transformation from a crowd-pleasing party to a dark underworld of reckless violence. Also, the “spring breakers” themselves are very entertaining and carry the film well enough to defy expectations; they make debauchery seem like an acceptable art form for cinema.

Never for one second will you be bored watching Spring Breakers — and I don’t mean that the director continually tries to shove things down the movie-making machine so as not to lose your attention. Spring Breakers is a believable-yet-fantastical portrayal of four girls who decide to flirt with the dangers of being young, wild, and free. You’ll either love it or hate it, and probably for the same reasons. Either way, it’s unlike anything you’ve seen before, and that alone is worth a trip to the movies.