Spring Breakers Vs The Bling Ring

Well i recently watched Spring Breakers, and i am happy to report that i was pleasantly surprised, i found the film to be surprisingly beautiful and well directed, if being perhaps a little pretentious. Earlier this year, just before the summer break i wandered through the murky sun drenched streets to see The Bling Ring, Sofia Coppola's latest directorial effort. Spring Breakers is about a group of college age girls, who rob a fast food restaurant to have enough money to go on spring break, and who descend into a violent subculture of guns, sex and gang warfare.

What differentiates these films most of all is their narrative structure, The Bling Ring is based upon an article by Nancy Jo Sales that first appeared in Vanity Fair, and the film uses the researching of this article to tell the story. The film uses interviews with the films protagonists in order to tell the story, and the film has a tight chronological narrative structure. Spring Breakers on the other hand is more of a collection of images, and the film uses repetitive narration and imagery to tell the story, and the story is much less tightly structured, and narration from scenes at the beginning of the film will be reused at the end.

What also differentiates these films is the motivations of the protagonists, the protagonists of Spring Breakers are motivated not by greed or materialism, but by a culture that has conditioned them to believe that spring break has to be a kind of agressive fun. When the girls get to florida they engage in activities that are repetitive and boring, yet they tell everyone that they are having a fantastic time and that Florida is somehow spiritual. The motivations of The Bling Ring are somewhat different, their crimes are motivated by materialism and by a worship of celebrity culture, their crimes aren't actually committed in the pursuit of things or objects themselves, but by wanting to feel like celebrities themselves, and by wanting to belong to this world.

These films do share similarities in that they both feature spectacular performances in supporting roles. In Spring Breakers, James Franco has a star turn as Alien, a rapper and gangster who pulls these girls into his world of guns, sex and drugs. In The Bling Ring, Emma Watson plays Nicki, a young, glass eyed woman entirely devoid of any personality, Watson is fantastically manipulative in this role, and she proves that it is possible to play a person devoid of personality, who is not a boring or two dimensional.

The films also look different, The Bling Ring is shot in a vaguely cinema verité style, using handheld techniques and digital cameras. Spring Breakers on the other hand uses a more indie feeling, with day glo colors and slow, smooth camera movements. Both films are interesting as showing aspects of youth culture and trash culture, however both films fail to show us inside the heads of their main characters, particularly Spring Breakers, and we never know why they commit these acts. However i enjoyed both films, and i commend their daring and spunk.