Skrillex?

The widespread theatrical release date for writer/director, Harmony Korine‘s latest film, Spring Breakers, fell on March 22nd.  That afternoon, I went to see a matinee screening at an IMAX theater that’s across the street from a mall in North Seattle.  It was an easy choice of location, both because of it’s proximity to my home and because it shares the last name of rapper, Kool Keith (“Thornton” Place).  But the fact that any options in location were made available at all, came as a huge surprise; I pretty much expected to have to wait for it to play at the local film festival, and/or find a one-off screening at an independent theater, like I did for his last two feature film releases.  Just days before, the only showings available in Washington State were listed at a place in Bremerton (if you don’t know where that is, then you get the point) and 2 screenings (10pm and midnight) the Thursday night before in Lynwood, which is about 20 minutes north of the city limits.  Beyond that, there was absolutely nothing.  Within the matter of a couple of days, there was huge growth in the level of distribution and the film was released in over 1,000 theaters nationwide.  After its much smaller limited release, which consisted of only 3 theaters between Los Angeles and New York, Spring Breakers pulled in $270,000, making it the #1 grossing limited-release film of the year, to date.  Whether it was part of the original plan or not, this was definitely incentive for A24 Films, the studio that acquired the movie’s domestic rights, to invest in multiple TV ads and push the distribution of what is, essentially, an art house film.  I can not EVER recall seeing an advertisement for any Korine project on television before, aside from some select news coverage surrounding the “controversial” Larry Clark film KIDS (1995), which Harmony wrote the screenplay for back when he was in his late teens.  There’s something different about this film, not only from the director’s previous work, but from anything else that you’re going to see this year — maybe, from anything else that you’re ever going to see again Read the rest of this entry →