Reader Reacts: Why Egotastic! Is So Stupidly Wrong About ‘Spring Breakers’

Egotastic's coverage of the Spring Breakers set has been superior but they couldn't be more wrong in saying the film is sure to be craptastic.

Sure, its easy to assume that a movie starring Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Benson isn't going to deliver any Oscar worthy performances but the biggest mistake here is underestimating the film's writer/director Harmony Korine.  His directorial debut Gummo shook up the film world in 1997 and remains one of the truly original American films. It's a film that rejects narrative convention in favor of perverse, poetic and daring visual storytelling.

Since then Korine has done nothing but continue to make challenging, controversial and artful films such as Julien Donkey-Boy, Mister Lonely and most recently Trash Humpers. He has generally worked outside of the system and while his films haven't been noticed by the mainstream they have garnered wide respect amongst filmmakers, critics like Roger Ebert and A-list festivals around the world.

Sure, Spring Breakers might seem like an anomaly; that maybe he's just working for a paycheck, but there's nothing in Harmony's track record to suggest that he has ever compromised his vision for anyone.  So if he wants to make a crossover comedy starring James Franco as a rapping arms-dealer who bails out these sextastic former Disney stars from jail, far be it for me to question it. Sounds pretty awesome. 

The problem is that there aren't many people like Harmony Korine out there.  If you just look at the cast and the premise of the film it seems like someone at CAA just packaged the hell out of a teen comedy. But Spring Breakers is Korine's project. He wasn't hired to direct this. Who the hell in Hollywood would hire Harmony Korine to direct a teen comedy?  When you step back and look at the project with Korine at the helm it actually seems like he's getting one over on everyone. Emma Roberts was originally cast in one of the roles but left the project during pre-production. Her handlers must have been a little wary about the tone and the director. One can only assume he's going to make something subversive and unique and exploit the cast and their fanbase in service of the film. Look at all the coverage so far on Egotastic alone.

Time will tell, but my money is on Harmony Korine.

Article by Joshua Levine