This spring break yarn, told with jittery methhead editing, blaring rap and a veritable cornucopia of pulsating navels and breasts, begins with four childhood friends – played by Disney Channel veterans Vanessa Hudgens and Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson (of ABC Family’s “Pretty Little Liars”) and Rachel Korine (the filmmaker’s wife) – sitting around their nearly empty college campus and grousing because they haven’t enough money to go on spring break to Florida. I’m going to give filmmaker Harmony Korine the benefit of the doubt and argue that his college-coeds-on-a-grand-Florida-debauch epic “Spring Breakers” is more than just exploitation, that behind its lurid face it has some serious stuff on its mind. “SPRING BREAKERS” My rating: C+ (Now playing wide) In large part that’s due to Garrett Hedlund’s superb (I’m tempted to use the word “monumental”) portrayal of Dean Moriarty, the womanizing, overindulging, incredibly charismatic figure based on Keroac’s real-life friend Neal Cassady. It’s not perfect, but it’s about as good a screen version of this controversial American classic as we’re likely to see. Like the novel, the film lacks anything like a conventional plot, being a series of episodes experienced over several years and a half-dozen cross-country treks by its protagonist, wannabe writer Sal Paradise.īut Salles, who has given us the Oscar-nominated “Central Station” and “The Motorcycle Diaries” (about the early travels of the young Che Guevera), finds a narrative and visual style that mimics the book’s pleasant ramblings and heartfelt rants. Having long assumed that Keroac’s stream-of-consciousness beat odyssey was unfilmable, I was pleasantly surprised by Brazilian director Walter Salles’ intelligent, sensitive and evocative new screen adaptation. Such was Truman Capote’s withering critique of Jack Keroac’s “On the Road.” “ON THE ROAD” My rating: B (Opens March 29 at the Glenwood Arts) Sam Riley as Sal Paradise/Jack Keroac Garrett Hedlund as Dean Moriarty/Neal Cassady
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