Bad girls on break

Mia Dixon-Slaughter, Co-Editor-in-Cheif

March 27, 2013

The rave for the new indie movie Spring Breakers has audiences everywhere excited for their own spring break. Harmony Korine, the director and writer of the movie, displays the stereotypical teen dream spring break vacation in under an hour and a half.

The borderline provocative film follows four close friends, Faith (Selena Gomez), Brit (Ashley Benson), Candy (Vanessa Hudgens), and Cotty (Rachel Korine), as they embark on adventures of the night like beach parties and making dangerous friends. The girls run away from their routine lives in college to enjoy their spring break in the sunny state of Florida. While in Florida they encounter a strange rapper with a hidden life who goes by the name of Alien or Al (James Franco), who takes them under his wing. This involves impending journeys to places unknown even to the not-so-innocent group of friends.

As the girls begin to spend the rest of their break with the rapper they are brought into a world of narcotics, artillery, and more bikinis. Alien becomes infatuated with the girls but not all of the girls can handle the threatening life with him. The first to leave and return home is Faith; trusting her instincts she leaves before she can get into more trouble. As the movie progresses and things become overwhelming, Cotty suffers from a gunshot wound to the arm and decides things have gone too far; she returns home next. Candy and Brit stick around for the adventures that Alien brings them and, oddly enough, enjoy every moment of it.

Korine brings an original and new trend of filming to the movie industry.

Throughout the movie there’s an artistic repetitiveness that keeps the audience’s eyes glued to the screen. In interviews he has stated that this style of filming was to give the viewers a naturally high and exhilarated feeling. His flash-forward style of transitioning to the next scene keeps the originality of his work. Critics admire the eccentric ways of Korine that he brings into his movies.

Spring Breakers is an intense series of events with instances of comic relief to keep the light hearted, fun feeling that people should feel on spring break. Korine truly captivated his open-minded audiences with this fun and thrilling spring break film.

About the Contributor

Mia Dixon-Slaughter, Co-Editor-in-Cheif

Mia Dixon-Slaughter, Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Downey Legend, stepped into the world of journalism 3 years ago as a sophomore. After a great deal of persuasion from her two best friends, who were on staff at the time, Dixon-Slaughter submitted her application at the semester and was welcomed shortly after. “I love writing and always have,” Slaughter said, “but I’ve always stuck strictly to literature so branching out into a different style and type of writing has helped me develop as a writer.” Although writing essays and covering stories can be polar opposites, the writer adjusted without much trouble. During her time at The Downey Legend, she has covered numerous stories, fiddled with the camera, and established the newspaper’s credibility on social media. She is competent enough to know what it takes to have efficient deadlines; all Slaughter has to do now is to guide her staff in that direction. If the writer is not covering stories happening around school, she is still somehow always somewhere on campus. Juggling AP classes, an ASB position, and her role in newspaper, Slaughter often finds herself with a hectic schedule. This being said, when genuine free time presents itself, she takes full advantage of it. “I love getting lost or ending up in places spontaneously because it feels so great to not have an agenda sometimes,” Dixon-Slaughter said. While the senior is busy getting ready for college and balancing out the rest of her responsibilities, she hopes to provide the staff with an exemplary example of the amount of greatness that can rise from commitment.