Spring Breakers comes from Harmony Korine, who explored the darker side of adolescents and their limited worldview in the "shocking" Kids (which he co-wrote). He went on to create films like the nihilistic NC-17 drama Gummo, before making the VHS-shot Trash Humpers project. If you've never heard of this guy before now, well, there's probably a reason for that.

Korine's latest picture is practically toothless, compared to some of his past work (in terms of mainstream appeal). The cast includes James Franco, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson (Pretty Little Liars), Vanessa Hudgens (Journey 2), Heather Morris (Glee) and the director's young wife, Rachel.

Here's a synopsis for the film:

Spring Breakers tells the story of four sexy college girls as they plan to fund their spring break getaway by burglarizing a fast food shack. But that's only the beginning...

At a motel room rager, fun reaches its legal limit and the girls are arrested and taken to jail. Hungover and clad only in bikinis, the girls appear before a judge but are bailed out unexpectedly by Alien (James Franco), an infamous local thug who takes them under his wing and leads them on the wildest Spring Break trip in history. Rough on the outside but with a soft spot inside, Alien wins over the hearts of the young Spring Breakers, and leads them on a Spring Break they never could have imagined.

Check out the Spring Breakers international trailer (which contains some NSFW content):

The Spring Breakers marketing (see: the posters below) might contribute to the mistaken impression that Korine's film is just a trashy and exploitative celebration of underage hedonism, as many have accused last year's Project X found-footage installment of being. However, it's apparent the director has more on his mind that delivering cheap thrills; indeed, the grubby cinematography, unflattering scenarios and queasy neon colors featured in the trailers suggest Spring Breakers is closer to an indictment of adolescent recklessness (whether it's a successful one, remains TBD).

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Spring Breakers opens exclusively in New York and Los Angeles on March 22nd, 2013. It will slowly expand to more theaters beginning a week later.

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Source: MTV, ecranlarge [via Collider]