'Spring Breakers' is out on DVD: Should you care?

It is extremely rare that I can't find at least some words to describe the way I feel about a film. Spring Breakers, however, has left me at a loss. I've been sitting here staring at this blank screen for quite a while now, wrestling with all sorts of different feelings about what I just saw, including hate, disgust, confusion and hefty helping of irritation.

Before I even attempt to sort this all out, I'm going to tell you now: I'm going to reveal some spoilers. I have to if I want to say what I think I'm going to say. Apologies in advance, but don't say I didn't warn you. And bear with me through this wobbly review because, to be honest, I feel a bit off-kilter after watching this movie.

Here's the thing: I knew going in that Spring Breakers was both written and directed by Harmony Korine. I knew that he tends to look at things from a (very) bleak point of view. He's the director of the bizarre, to say the least, with films like Trash Humpers and Gummo to his credit. I felt fully prepared for an exploitation film. I knew that Spring Breakers wasn't going to be some rollicking good-time movie about a bunch of former Disney teen queens partying it up in Florida. I knew there would be more. And oh, there is so much more going on in this film.

I should probably say that I hated Spring Breakers 100 percent, but I'd be lying. It's more like 85 percent? I should tell you that yes, while I get that Korine was offering up some serious satire about the state of our society (and young people, in particular), I still found it totally creepy and incredibly unsettling. The four young women who head to Florida for all the partying and the sex and the general wild times (Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson and Rachel Korine) eventually find themselves hanging out with a full fledged gangster, Alien, played with gusto by the brilliant James Franco. They do bad things. Everyone in this film does bad things. I won't give you the play-by-play of the plot, because it doesn't matter. Just know: bad things.

What did I like about the movie? Where's that 15 percent coming from? James Franco steals Spring Breakers. This is the third Franco film I've seen in under two weeks (the other two being the hilarious This Is the End and the just so-so Oz The Great and Powerful). It really wasn't even intentional, but it does help me with comparisons. Without question, this is Skeevy Franco at his best - playing a wacked out weirdo sleazebag rapper/gangster. Franco's unsettling, completely over the top performance was the highlight of the film for me, when I wasn't cringing and generally feeling all icky.

As for the movie overall, I truly do understand that the idea behind Spring Breakers is to expose the nasty side of society. Harmony Korine is trying to make a point with Spring Breakers, and if you don't get it, well then, he's going to keep hammering that point home until you do (and I got it, pretty early on in the film). But just because I get something, doesn't mean I have to like it.

The film is, visually, quite powerful, but for me personally, I couldn't get past the dirtiness of it all. I'm not a prude, I swear. But my GOD the objectification of women in this movie, come ON. Some might argue that the women become powerful and blah blah blah but I'm not buying it. NPR's David Edelstein offers up the best description of my own feelings about watching Spring Breakers:

Korine is an art-house darling and doubtless thinks he's parodying girls-gone-wild pictures while delivering one that's like Where the Boys Are on acid. It's among the skeeviest films I've ever seen: The camera glides up, down and around these women's bodies like a giant tongue.

And for the record, while the movie is visually great, the script was greatly lacking. I never felt like the characters (any of them) were developed enough. The plot, especially for the first half of the film, is non-existent.

Now, if you've seen Spring Breakers and totally disagree with me, that's fine. A lot of the world's most well-known movie critics thought Spring Breakers was a decent film, after all. I respect everyone's opinions when it comes to movies, especially the ones where we're all divided in what we thought about them. I'd love to hear what you thought in the comments, so fire away. Spring Breakers is nothing if not provocative.

In the meantime, if you've read this far and still don't know whether you want to see Spring Breakers, I hope that if nothing else, I've warned you a bit about what may or may not upset/offend/freak-you-right-out.

Spring Breakers is out on DVD now, and it is rated R (and it deserves that rating and maybe more). I hope that it goes without saying, but I'm going to say it: If your tween wants to see this movie because her idol, Selena Gomez, is in it, you are going to be furious within the first two minutes of the film. Don't do it.

Whew. Okay I feel a little better, but I still feel like I need a shower. Yeesh.

Photos courtesy of Screen Crush and Rolling Stone