SPOILER DISCUSSION
1.I talked about the beautiful shots during the movie and just wanted to showcase some of my favorites along with why they feel so emblematic of the film’s ideas.
Just look at the variety of shots on display here. The first shot literally looks like something out of a Malick movie and the line from Corinthians about being provided a way out reins true for Faith’s decisions later. The idea of being able to resist temptation is what helps mold her decision to leave vacation first. It’s telling that this shot eschews the neon lighting in other moments and features colors of all varieties – is it maybe an indication that overcoming temptation is a way of achieving something else? Is it the idea that color can be found anywhere even if it’s not in a traditional party setting? Maybe it’s just supposed to be a visually striking shot. Either way it’s a standout.
The next shot showcases the four girls urinating in public but the voiceover that accompanies it says that they “saw some beautiful things here.” It’s perfect – the idea of public urination being some spiritual life transforming beauty is indicative of what the movie is saying about modern culture. The jail holding cell being a dreary blue like the girls’ hometown/college reinforces the idea that not being able to engage in their party has literally sapped all meaning from their lives. The final shot is a beautiful use of magic hour lighting, elevating the group’s robberies with the faux spiritual nature of spring break hedonism.
2. Speaking of same shit different surrounding, I love the subtle repetition of Brit and Candy watching My Little Pony both at home and during their vacation. Even at a different location, they want to spend their free time watching the same cartoon in a strange disinterested way. It’s another perfect demonstration of how nothing has really changed but their ideological investment.
3. I talked about the way African Americans are consumed by the American Dream in the review, but I couldn’t get into all the minute details that seem to support this. The fact that movie starts off with a lecture about the same that’s drowned out seems proof enough but even before the girls go on their stay it’s clear what the elephant in the room is. For example, when Candy and Britt go to Cotty’s place to discuss how to get their getaway car, the camera hovers over Cotty’s phone. What entertainment is she watching? Black men fighting one another in what looks to be a backyard somewhere.
Then of course once the girls meet Alien, the idea gains even more steam. He’s a white rapper with dreads, who says the n-word, and learned everything he knows from Archie. If that isn’t consuming the labor of black people/culture and subsuming it I don’t know what is. The fact that the movie ends with all the black characters getting shot to death and robbed is the proof in the pudding. Don’t get it twisted- I’m not saying African American culture is trapping or that Archive is a stand up role model. That’d be reductionist and lacking any nuance. I am saying that the movie constantly showcases ways that Blackness is consumed without receiving its due while trying that idea to the way the American Dream has progressed from plantations to reconstruction to the current pop climate age.
4. I hesitate to say that Korine is outright calling this unabashed hedonism evil as much as he’s honestly describing the way the system works. Sure there are a host of issues with it, but interestingly enough the change to a system predicated on pure belief and the will to do whatever one desires gives the girls a sense of agency. They’re constantly sexualized, but they take a pleasure in it in the same way society expects males to. Cotty and Brit even flip the script by having Alien give their symbolic cocks fellatio. It’s a reversal of the images from the initial spring break montages that showcase men with phallic control. As if to prove the point, Alien even says “I just sucked ya’lls dicks.”
In this world, all that matters is belief and will- something that men and women have access to. As such, anyone can dominate or win any situation. Likewise, anyone can be made to fellate. It’s a strangely empowering system that foreshadows the ending to come.
5.My favorite scene has to be of Alien singing “Everytime” with so much heart and passion that you’d think it was a holy hymn of sorts. There isn’t visual continuity as the piano that Alien plays the song on changes locations during the montage demonstrating that the affect he’s tapping into isn’t bound by space or time but merely by belief and feeling. The elevation of a pop song to something beautiful and spiritual highlights the way pop culture has become the idol of the new age.
The montage also reflects the disturbing way that adherents to this new faith see themselves and their actions. The song playing over horrific robberies is a callback to the girls’ initial robberies taken to the next level. Whereas the original robbery only had pop playing from Cotty’s car radio, the new robbery has the song playing over everything – the power of belief has only strengthened the girls and their resolve.
6. I know some people (my friends included) hate the ending because it feels absurd to think two girls with no body armor and very little collective experience would be able to overpower and kill everyone in a drug lord’s secure compound. I agree. It is absurd. It should never work. That’s exactly why it’s such a powerful demonstration of what the movie is trying to demonstrate- only true believers will survive. Candy and Brit constantly ask Alien if he’s scared, if he’s scaredy cat. He definitely is. There’s worry and unease in the way he postures his body and flicks his eyes. He might be willing to attack Archie’s compound, but he still contains a semblance of rationality that hasn’t given into the fervor.
On the other hand both Candy and Brit are completely invested in the system. As evidenced by Faith’s friends earlier on in the movie, these two girls have “demon blood”. They’re built different and that difference stems from how much they believe in the system. During the initial robbery, they’re the ones who are willing to go in to get the job done. Despite not even having real guns, they have no fear that they’ll fail. They know it’s all about projecting and having faith. ” Like everything else in the movie, their past actions don’t change but become amplified. Their reinforced belief is why they succeed. They treat the situation like a videogame, a movie where all they need to do is play the part as it should be played. Unlike Alien, there’s no wavering. There’s no fear. There’s no doubt. If ideology is what’s needed to enjoy then their fully vested investment in the system is why they succeed and enjoy to the fullest. The car they steal from Archie’s complex is yellow like the bikinis they wear while doing the job – yellow for change. However, as they drive off the colors make the car look red – like the color of excitement – the color of Spring Break. They’ve fully “transformed” into prophets of the new age.
7. Speaking of endings, I love how each girl is “removed” from their vacation. Faith, the one who’s told that she’ll receive help from temptation, is given a visit by Alien who goes so far as to say maybe he’s the answer to her prayer. She takes the first opportunity once things go wrong to leave the situation. Given that she’s the devout member of the group and the least comfortable with the whole experience it makes sense that she’s the first go back.
Cotty’s departure is a callback to the professor’s lecture at the beginning of the movie. He tells the students about how soldiers left the battlefield completely changed by what they saw. The damages and violence left a mark on them that changed them. Given that the movie claims that the ideological fight against fascism in WWII/the second Reconstruction was just a instantiation of the American Dream at that time, it makes sense that the current epoch marked as the ideological tango with pop culture hedonism is a fight that can leave similar marks. The common factor between the two is its representation of freedom for some while it relegates Black people to the sidelines. Like a soldier (in the context of the analogy, not seriously), Cotty’s injuries change her and make her want to leave.
The only two that get a “happy” ending are Brit and Candy, the two girls who are most prone to just giving in to the system and embracing it for what it is. They’re true adherents of the “American Dream” in its current incarnation and can reap the fruits of those who contribute to it.