He’s been one of the most memorable characters in any movie this year, and so it seems appropriate that he would have a single, unforgettable, idiosyncratic name to go with him. It serves him well in a number of ways in terms of story and the overarching themes of the movie. Alien could describe the fact that he’s seemingly the only white gangster in this predominantly black Floridian crime underworld. It could refer to his role as the character who steals away these girls to a world they’ve never been exposed to before. It could emphasize the notion that this escape that is supposed to be spring break is another world entirely, alien even to the popularized images of what people picture when they think of spring break.
It could be an allusion to the idea that the James Franco character is playing the role of the tempter, the Satanic figure trying to lure relatively innocent figures into the hellish world he inhabits. It could also just refer to the fact that we’ve never seen Franco behave on film quite like this ever before, in what has to be his single best performance. He really seems like a completely different person here, more than any other film I’ve seen him in. But it might simply boil down to the fact that this is a weird movie, he’s a weird dude, and the name is suitably weird. Either way, it’s awesome.
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