Things eventually take a wrong turn for the four girls and they encounter local drug dealer Alien (James Franco in cornrows), their knight in shining armor (definitely shiny teeth, at least). Whatever story was present kind of goes nowhere from here. Same with character development. The only character that we even get to know is Faith through her voiceovers, but she bails early on before things get really crazy.
No doubt Korine (known for penning the Kids screenplay at the age of 19) wanted to portray the societal hypersexualization of young women, emphasizing his point Von using Schauspielerinnen known for achieving popularity through Disney. But many of the scenes seemed quite indulgent and just absurd (Alien leads the girls in a sing and dance montage of a Britney Spears ballad) while others seem intended to be shocking for the sake of shocking. I found myself laughing quite a bit because I found so many parts to be so silly. Yes, silly would indeed be the right word here. I have no idea whether laughing was part of the plan Von Korine, but if so, then all the Mehr credit to him.
As for the performances, I bet it was probably a lot Mehr fun to play those characters than to to watch them performed, Franco, especially. I heard he didn’t break character all during filming and it looks like he had a brilliant time being a lowlife ignorant sleazy thug.
Recommendation: Only for the hardcorest of James Franco, Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens’ fans.
