A24 Film No.3: Spring Breakers (2012)

 

Chronologically (depending on the list you read), this is the third A24 movie, and we quickly see a shift in vibes from A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III. Spring Breakers feels much closer to what I think many people associate with A24: a project that proposes something that feels new, without fear of being controversial or off-putting. The cast itself was clearly part of the film's appeal, with teen idols at the height of their cultural relevance (including Selena Gomez, still a Disney Channel sweetheart at the time). Also, pre–James Franco’s cancellation, when his name was still cool. Pure influencer royalty, before the term fully existed.

This movie fits neatly into what I think of as an A24 saga of dreams that end badly. The characters get too close to the sun and eventually burn from the consequences of excess and overreach. Here, the dream is deceptively simple: the fantasy of the college experience, the perfect and unforgettable Spring Break. That fantasy is permeated by ideas of freedom, self-discovery, and figuring out how you fit among your peers as a young adult. In that sense, it almost feels like a subsection of the American Dream (are there any recent movies where the American Dream actually ends well, or does it always collapse?).

In many ways, this also feels like an early conceptual ancestor to Euphoria. It explores excess as a way out of a world that feels limiting and suffocating. The characters are essentially prolongations of teenagehood, there’s no real sense of responsibility or consequence, only escalation. Everything exists in the present tense.

Rewatching the film, one of my favorite elements is the music. It’s a perfect time capsule of 2012–2013. The opening beach party set to Skrillex’s “Scary Monsters” immediately situates the film culturally (and made me realize I hadn’t thought about Skrillex in at least ten years). Later tracks, like “Tighten Up” by The Black Keys, reinforce this temporal specificity. The aesthetics (neon-like, hyper-stylized, almost synthetic) feel like something that later crystallizes in Euphoria, as if the party never stops and follows you everywhere. Sound and music guide us through the party-turned-nightmare, blurring pleasure and menace.

Selena Gomez’s character is especially important through her monologues in the phone calls to her grandma. She sees the trip as something spiritual and transformative, about finding yourself, finding friends, and escaping reality. For her, Spring Break is magical, bigger than the trip itself. This idealization creates a sharp counterpoint to what we’re actually seeing on screen. She’s also the first character to recognize that the dream is unraveling (“Why is this happening to us?” “It’s not supposed to end this way”). When she leaves, the film loses its last trace of accountability and reflection, and it becomes pure chaos (is there a way back to their old lives after experiencing this Spring Break?).

At some point, almost half an hour into the movie, a DJ screams to the party crowd, “We are forever.” That line captures the core illusion of youth the film is obsessed with: the sense of invincibility, of being untouchable and eternal. There is no past and no future, only an endless present where consequences don’t quite register.

Structurally, the movie feels messy and directionless, aside from the trip itself. While that can be disorienting or alienating, it mirrors the characters’ internal states. The film is visceral in a way that almost desensitizes the viewer. I personally feel numb watching it, disconnected from the characters, yet completely submerged in the nightmare logic of the parties and violence they drift through. Everything feels dreamlike, as if the characters are moving through the world like avatars in a video game or a reality show, rather than fully embodied people.

I first watched Spring Breakers when I was starting my PhD, already far removed from the experience of an undergraduate Spring Break. Still, the film captures something very specific to the U.S. college system and its rituals of freedom and excess. I’d love to discuss it with my students and see what resonates with them now, more than a decade later.

Nevertheless, spring break forever.

Dir. Harmony Korine

James Franco, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine, and Gucci Mane.