The Cinematheque

The best film of 2013

John Waters, Artforum

A hyper-stylized, subversive take on YOLO hedonism, pop-culture consumerism, and Girls Gone Wild sexploitation, Korine’s decidedly family-unfriendly fifth feature sent parents into a tizzy when its tween-idol dream cast—including Disney YA starlets Selena Gomez (Wizards of Waverly Place) and Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical)—appeared bikini-clad and pistol-toting in promo material. The end result, among the best films of the decade, indulged those scandalous hooks to near camp levels of absurdity. Its nominal plot, peripheral to the film’s fluid, oneiric tone and phosphorescent photography (by Gaspar Noé DP Benoît Debie), involves a group of broke college girls who rob a diner to fund their spring break in Florida. After hard partying results in their arrest, they enter into a drug war involving the local gangster who bails them out (a lecherous James Franco, in his best role). Skrillex scores, but a Britney Spears piano ballad is the barn burner.

“A fever dream of teenage kicks, a high-concept heist movie with mescal in the fuel tank … Korine’s most fully realised, purely satisfying feature film since Gummo.”

Xan Brooks, The Guardian