The gold-toothed and Southern-accented Alien (James Franco) epitomizes Harmony Korine’s uncompromisingly extravagant work, “Spring Breakers.” He’s gross, unrelentingly immoral and stupid. But there is something more to his character.

To call “ Breakers” a simple morality tale would be a disservice to its more experimental qualities. Korine’s film is a blend of avant-garde flair, experimental tastes and mainstream desires, all rolled into a surprisingly subversive and bizarre coming-of-age story.

As is expected from a movie about four girls who go to Florida for spring break, events quickly go awry. However, it’s done in such a fashion that makes it staggeringly surreal and nearly beautiful to watch. Cinematographer Benôit Debie tells Korine’s boozy, nasty story through excessive neon-colored images. Debie’s scenes are filled with bursts of neon greens, oranges, blues and pinks. The colors pulsate and throb in a fashion that is almost as sensual and madness-inducing as South Florida on the cusp of summer.

Throughout his film, Korine proposes this is what happens when people take modern extravagance, as portrayed by society’s increasingly apparent cultural appropriation — Korine’s looking at you, Miley Cyrus — and push it to its most violent extremes. The oversexed girls’ interest in excessive drug use and gangster culture says a lot about how society feeds extravagance, and it shows how that culture encourages the girls’ behavior.

A version of this article appeared in the Thursday, Dec. 5 print edition. Charlie Spector is a staff writer. Email him at [email protected].