It makes a certain amount of sense that actresses who have spent their childhoods on squeaky clean television shows to want to break free from that image whether in their careers (Elizabeth Berkeley in Showgirls) or their personal lives (Lindsay Lohan battle with the law and drugs.) These women have grown up in front of millions of people yet no doubt their real lives are much different than the made-for-children characters they play every day on the small screen. Who wouldn’t want to show the world they are mature adults after that?
It makes a certain amount of sense that we too, as members of their audiences would be fascinated by these good girls gone bad. Which is why when word came out that two Disney princesses – Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens – were starring in a tale of drugs and debauchery while on Spring Break you could feel the fevered fantasies of an entire internet vibrating through every tube. The fact that it was being directed by Harmony Korine, a man known more for his dark surrealism than any sort of exploitative T&A, only made it more interesting.
It is Korine in fact that makes Spring Breakers my pick of the week. I’m too old (and my kid too young) to know anything about Gomez or Hudgens (though admittedly their pictures are attractive and I’m not one to back away from drugs nor debauchery in a motion picture) but Korine seems a very fascinating person. He wrote the controversial Kids about a bunch of debauched teenagers acting like a bunch of debauched teens. I saw it as a teenager and couldn’t figure out why it was so controversial (these kids act just like the kids at my high school.) He directed Trash Humpers which is about, well I’m not sure exactly what its about except a bunch of people wearing old people masks doing really weird stuff. Both films are enough to make me interested in Korine as an artist and wondering what in the world he’s gonna do with two Disney girls and James Franco in dreadlocks.
I don’t expect to really like the results, but I’m definitely interested which is why Spring Breakers is my Pick of the Week.
Also out this week that looks interesting:
Dead Man Down: A violent crime thriller with Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace, I’ve not heard of it until now but I like those two actors and I’m ready to see how it goes.
Admission: A romantic comedy starring Tina Fey and Paul Rudd and directed by Paul Weitz. I love, love 30 Rock which will make me give this a chance even though I’m not much for rom-coms, Rudd, Weitz, or anything else Fey has done.
Marvel Knights: Wolverine, Origin: A friend of mine loaned me a bunch of X-Men comics this summer and I’ve been tearing through them, making me a big fan in the process. This is an animated version of how the X-Men’s most fascinating character came to be.
Portandia Season 3: I usually leave out things that I’m not particularly interested in no matter how popular, but just could not not talk about this. In general, I pretty much hate all sketch comedy, funny though it may be there is never enough story to keep me interested. Portlandia is one of the better ones I’ve seen in years and I have friends who adore it, but even so I couldn’t get past the first three or four episodes. But I appreciate its cleverness nonetheless which is why it gets this nod.
