You might have heard some buzz about the upcoming film Spring Breakers. We talked about it briefly when Vanessa Hudgens‘ hair suddenly turned a less-flattering shade of blonde for the role a while back. The film also features Selena Gomez and Pretty Little Liars’ Ashley Benson. (The fourth girl is 26-year-old Rachel Korine, the director, Harmony Korine’s wife.) In case you aren’t familiar with Harmony Korine‘s films, they’re less than easy-to-stomach. In fact I’ve never actually made it all the way through one. His popular titles include Gummo, Kids, and Trash Humpers. Why is this important? Well, perhaps because the three actresses I mentioned first are famous because of a little franchise called Disney. I don’t think it assumes much to say this film will put these actresses in a new light. 


The plot goes like this: The four ladies in question run out of money during spring break and decide to rob a restaurant. When they get thrown in the slammer, they’re bailed out by a drugs-n-guns dealer — played by James Franco — who enlists them to do some “dirty work.” [imdb] I’m assuming that’s when things take a swift turn for the Korine-esque plot line we might expect. Selena says she had to learn how to believably smoke a cigarette for the role, as she’d never done so in real life, but I’ll bet that’s the least of the debauchery.

For Selena, Vanessa, and me, our audience is all in their teens or younger, so they’re not even going to be able to see this when it comes out—it’s not appropriate.

says Ashley Benson. And don’t get me wrong, I think these girls are perfectly capable of breaking out of their Disney molds and taking on more serious roles. In fact I commend them for not resting on their sugary-sweet images. Perhaps this is just the thing for them. I’ll be happy to eat my words in that case. 

But Korine has never shied away from disturbing imagery, and he seems to like making his audience uncomfortable. Kids was about some too-young-for-comfort city kids, using drugs, getting HIV and being generally upsetting. Gummo focused on some backwoods atrocities comparable to the aforementioned. I won’t go into detail, but it gets gross. I’ll be interested to see the trailer for Spring Breakers when it comes out, but I don’t know if I’ll be first in line to see the movie. As much as I love these actresses, knowing what Korine is capable of, I’m not sure I want to see them in this context.

Are you a Harmony Korine fan? Will you be seeing Spring Breakers?

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