SPRING BREAKERS Trailer Is A Neon Nightmare

Here's your first look at Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers, the tale of four bikini-clad girls who turn to a life of crime in order to fund their dream of an endless spring break.  It stars some former Disney stars like Vanessa Hudgens and Selena Gomez as well as James Franco's ongoing lack of discriminating taste.  Korine is probably best known as the writer of Larry Clark's Kids, which was the movie all my classmates were talking about but few actually saw when I was in middle school.  He hasn't directed a feature since 2007's Mister Lonley, which starred Diego Luna as a Michael Jackson impersonator in Paris.  (I swear to god, that movie actually happened.)

Amazingly enough, the movie actually has a tremendous amount of buzz behind it, after apparently flooring audiences at both Toronto and Venice last year.  Regardless of how the movie turns out, I think this trailer leaves a lot to be desired.  The neon/glow-in-the-dark color palate is garish to say the least, the back and forth between over exposed daylight and grainy digital nightscape practically gave me vertigo and the constant uttering of "spring break" in voiceover seems to have come direct from the genius who gave us the Columbiana trailer ("Never forget where you came from!")

 Mostly I can't believe that, only one day after the President signed 23 executive orders regarding gun control, this trailer doesn't seem to be catching more flack for showing teenagers loading up guns and saying, "Pretend like it's a video game."  Despite the NRA's repeated and nonsensical claims, it's been demonstrated time and time again that there's no demonstrable link between violence in media and violence in real life, but shit like this certainly doesn't help.  I'm not saying it has no place in the actual movie (context!) but would it kill you to leave it out of the trailer?  The line itself isn't offensive so much as it's a bullshit marketing ploy; it just feels like courting controversy to get some free press.  THAT'S offensive.

If I end up seeing this thing at all, it'll be almost solely because of the involvement of Megan Ellison, who's pretty much my hero these days.