Spring Breakers

Four pals (Ashley Benson, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Rachel Korine) rob a restaurant to finance spring break vacation in St. Petersburg, Fla., where they get busted for cocaine and are bailed out by a lowlife dealer and pimp named Alien (James Franco, almost unrecognizable with his braids and flashy gold teeth), who relishes the fresh young meat. Writer-director Harmony Korine (remember when he was hot?) doesn't push the envelope, he rips it to shreds, and the movie takes on the enervating negative energy of Alien's slurring, addled monologues. Korine dares us to look away, and he's right, we can't—but that's not necessarily a compliment. Only Franco and Gomez (whose character bails out early) manage to stand out amid the sun-soaked delirium; Hudgens, Benson and Korine's wife Rachel remain indistinguishable.