Spring Breakers: The newest cult classic

Harmony Korine is not known for making mainstream film, and “Spring Breakers” is no exception. Although it stars ex-Disney stars Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens, as well as James Franco, this movie is far from being a spinoff of the “High School Musical” series or “Freaks and Geeks.”

Korine wanted to make “Spring Breakers” a hallucinatory drug experience with additional girly themes such as Hello Kitty backpacks. This drug-infused idea led to many plot holes but also an interesting use of repetition throughout.

The idea for the film began with an image of young girls in bikinis on the beach with pink ski masks on robbing fat tourists. Throw James Franco as a white gangster and Gucci Mane as his rival into the mix, and you have one of the most intriguing and disturbing films of the year.

The story line follows four college girls whose desire to go to Florida for spring break leads to robbing a local chicken shack. Once in Florida, they rent scooters, drink excessively and constantly talk about “finding themselves.”

Finding themselves also includes being arrested for cocaine and marijuana usage, only to be bailed out by Alien, played by James Franco, and becoming a part of his enterprise. On paper, this film could be commercially successful if done in the style of an action thriller. Yet Harmony Korine is more of a pop culture poet than he is a sellout.

Watching “Spring Breakers” was watching a hyper-sexualized, over-the-top violent reality. The amount of scenes with nude breasts, keg stands and foreplay involving guns in this film are countless, but what is so fascinating about this film is that its exaggeration was still accessible and relatable.

Wild Florida spring breaks are fantasized in American culture. This generation grew up watching MTV Spring Breaks live, grasping to the notion that one day they could also experience a vacation like that.

Just as Andy Warhol made art about the conformity of American culture from the actual soup can, Harmony Korine created an art piece regarding the twisted obsession America has with sex and violence by using an obscene amount of sex and violence in “Spring Breakers.” The sheer absurdity of the film at times has the audience laughing and ends up leaving people with high energy and a lot to think about American culture.