Movie Review: The Bling Ring Proves as Superficial as its Reality ...

Location

Wide Release

Dates

Opens June 21

From October 2008 through August 2009, a group of Los Angeles high school kids burglarized a string of celebrity homes in the Hollywood Hills. In many ways the crime spree was perfect 21^st century remix of the Bonnie and Clyde story. The homes were targeted by searching on the internet for which celebrities were out of town on any given night. The thrill of the crime was fed, in part, by the teen burglar?s infatuation with stars and celebrity lifestyle. The fascination and media bubble that swelled around the crooks after they were caught for their crime catapulted the teenagers into a kind of Reality TV stardom that, though nefarious and life altering, seemed to satisfy a hunger for a life authenticated through the media glare. Even today, now that most of the culprits have served their jail time and have been released, TMZ will stop some of the Bling Ring members on the streets of Hollywood. In other words, by bizarre paparazzi standards, they?ve made it.

Sophia Coppola?s new film The Bling Ring dives into this bizarre and perfectly contemporary scenario, taking us through the crimes that led up to the eventual capture/stardom. Too bad she doesn?t dive deep enough. The film tries to be in ? and of ? the world it portrays. As a result, it feels like a glossy veneer of life. Long sequences are given over to ogling at the contents of Paris Hilton?s closet, as girls swipe high end purses and stuff them with jewelry. Other moments play out like music videos: long, lingering shots of the teenagers driving through L.A. or spending their stolen thousands at popular clubs, all to a mellow, synth-soaked soundtrack (Coppola, if anything, has always had impeccable taste in music). There are also scenes shot from webcams, incessant smart phone photo shoots, and lots of gabby vernacular. The longer we hang around these the characters, however, the less there seems to know about them. That may be part of the point, but it makes for a film that is as consumed by the surface of things as the superficial people it portrays.

Coppola approach here is tricky. She seems to want to show the world for what it is, and yet leave us with not so much a critique of its protagonists, as a lingering bitter taste. Of all the characters, Marc (Israel Broussard) seems to be most fully developed. He reluctantly joins in on his friend Rebecca?s (Katie Chang) plan to break into unlocked house, but is soon swept up in it like everyone else. Long close up shots of his face try to penetrate an inner psychology that remains out of reach. His fall from grace ? the eventual capture and spoiling of the teenagers? dream world ? hardly provokes any sympathy. There are times when Coppola seems to be trolling for our sympathy for these characters, and other times when she seems to want to keep them at arm?s length.

Emma Watson turns in the most intriguing performance as Nicki, a girl who unlike Marc and Rebecca, seems lost in an altogether deeper delusional existence. Coppola opens the film with some of this ridiculousness, having Nicki speculate to the paparazzi that despite her crimes she may become a world leader nonetheless. But then we lose the character to the mellow blur of the action that follows. That?s what happens to much of The Bling Ring, and it is what makes Coppola?s film feel more unfocused than subtle.

Source: http://frontrow.dmagazine.com/2013/06/movie-review-the-bling-ring-proves-as-superficial-as-its-reality-tv-obssessed-anti-heroes/

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