Disney girls gone wild

The best movies are always expertly walking that fine line between art and escapism.

Films inherently need an emotional heft but must retain enough style to remind us that it is, after all, still just a movie. We want to relate, but we also want to be wowed.

This month saw the release of Harmony Korine’s “Spring Breakers,” where stars like Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens party it up with James Franco as a slimy Floridian gangster, steal money, do drugs and cause all-out havoc. It doesn’t exactly sound like typical indie film fare, especially in comparison to the rest of Korine’s artsy directorial work. But who can resist watching young, attractive Disney Queens do despicable things? When it opened in three theaters nationwide March 15, “Spring Breakers” grossed an outstanding $263,002. That’s $87,667 per theater.

Now this may sound like pure escapism. I don’t know about everyone else, but my spring breaks don’t typically involve robbery and compulsive drug use. Relatable isn’t perhaps what Korine is aiming for. But he understands an audience’s carnal desire to watch gorgeous people break the law and do terrible things. It’s a niche that’s been tried and true. Who didn’t take pleasure in watching Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon and Sarah Michelle Gellar backstab and betray each other in “Cruel Intentions”?

The same goes for Sofia Coppola’s upcoming film “The Bling Ring,” which is based on a true story where Hollywood teenagers broke into multiple stars’ homes and burgled clothes, jewels and other valuables. It has the same good girls gone bad appeal of “Spring Breakers,” except in “The Bling Ring” we get to watch Emma Watson and her crew of cohorts behave badly while looking glamorous in the process.

When filmmakers with pedigrees like Korine and Coppola want to tell these stories, there must be more than parties, drugs and stars. These are tales of indulgence, extravagance and the danger that comes with them. How far are people willing to go to have it all? Pretty far, if we’re to judge from these movies.

But the question is, why do we enjoy this behavior? Are we condoning bad deeds in buying tickets to these movies? It might be too picturesque to imagine we want to see disgraceful people receive their just rewards and face punishment for their immoral actions.

But what if that’s looking too far into things? What if we just simply want to watch hot people do bad things? Is that really so wrong? I’ll raise my voice and own up to the fact that I enjoy it. I can’t wait to see “Spring Breakers” and “The Bling Ring.” I practically salivate every time I replay their trailers online over and over again.

Or maybe it’s because we adore watching nice girls like Gomez and Watson scrub off those clean, pristine good-girl images and run amok on screen. Nothing says not wanting to get typecasted as the angel next door like stripping your clothes and taking bong hits on film.

I believe we ultimately love to see these movies because it’s a world we don’t, and probably never will, live in. And even if that were your life, it wouldn’t be nearly as alluring as it looks on the big screen. We see them because after we leave the theater, we get to return to our normal, mundane lives where fame and opulence are just a dizzy daydream.