The Bling Ring

The Bling Ring is a stunningly shot, visually entertaining film that strives to make a statement about materialism and young teens' fame obsessions. Unfortunately, Sofia Coppola fails to translate her vision into a substantiated plot that develops a story and protagonists; neither of which, are worth caring about. Aside from Emma Watson's intimidating performance, the acting is sub-par which aids in the instantaneous transition from Coppola's attempts to create a smart, creative film to a shallow, unsatisfactory film that feels quite unfinished. The idea of The Bling Ring is fresh, however you cannot help but ignore the large lack of intellectual Bling, the film once promised or Coppola might have hoped for.

This is barely a story. The entire thing is just an endless repeat of the main "characters" robbing celebrities' houses and partying at the club afterwards, in fact it's as if one scene just got stuck and repeated over and over again until it created a black hole of bad dialogue, flashing lights, pulsing music and annoying teenage girls. It's all simply nauseating!

The few nice things that can be said about this "film", such as the great cinematography and the talented main actors who try their hardest to say the terrible lines they're given, aren't enough to save it.

The collective level of vapidity on display in the Bling Ring might (like totally) reach epic proportions.

Award-winning, insightful director, Sofia Coppola, has once again made a film that is highly successful in portraying fame and celebrity ... only this time she has turned the cameras onto those who obsess over and covet the fame and celebrity others have.

The Bling Ring is a character study/meditation of a group of people -- based on real life individuals in SoCal -- with NO character whatsoever. They are all beautiful bling on the outside with no inner core of morality. They are shells of a mass emptiness who worship others for merely having stuff they want ... or being on their TVs.

Coppola's story is based on real-life events of a group of five vacuous and insipid teenagers (one boy and four girls) who used the internet to track the whereabouts of their "celebrity" idols -- some were merely "reality stars" -- so that when the stars were out of town the five could play. The five would break into celeb houses and play with beautiful things that belonged to Paris Hilton, Rachel Bilson, Orlando Bloom, Audrina Patridge or ... their ultimate idol, Lindsay Lohan. They also ended up pocketing and stealing a lot of designer goods and merchandise (you know, like to wear and be cool with). They had fun and bragged about their shenanigans at parties and on social media all the while believing that they had done nothing wrong. One even believes this happened in order for her to become more charitable -- her comment on "karma" must be heard to be believed. Coppola wisely lifted this line word-for-word as it is tragic comic gold.

Emma Watson (Harry Potter, Perks of Being a Wallflower) is the most-recognizable face in the cast and she totally has the film's bestest lines! Watson is a genius comedienne ... who knew? Her line delivery and depiction of oblivious shame are perfect.

Coppola understands the world of fame and she has proved she also understand the world of those who dream of it. This isn't a movie in which characters learn life lessons and change ... this is a depiction of people who believe they do no wrong (like never ever). It is eye-opening because these people walk amongst us. The film is full of face palm, jaw drop and eye rolling moments. Like ... a lot. Totally.

Yeah this is a dismal misfire. Worse it shows a new Coppola that I'll be avoiding in the future. I say this as someone who can get excited for a project like this, one that embraces youth without sugarcoating the folly and pretensions, that brings a genuine curiosity to a vibrant world—in short something like Spring Breakers that in the thuggish lifestyle finds room for reflection.

This is a superficial look at superficial people, and I mean superficial in what Coppola sees of them. For what it's worth she decided to delve into these lives, apparently inspired by real events. The real events are not a concern here, they are always a springboard for our cinematic journey. She decided to bring these people into focus for us to see, at least so far as she could see into them.

And what does she see? A flaky, rootless youth that has not worked to create its world, that emptily covets expensive trinkets and finds them by merely walking through the door and grabbing stuff. This isn't just about these four individuals who sneak into celebrities' homes, it is a broader look at instagram culture. Naturally.

What's worse is that Coppola has not found some inner space where souls feebly try to know each other and participate, how stealing fabrics can be a search for the identity of what to wrap around self. I'm not saying they should have been shown as troubled romantics. Looking at my youth I recognize a lot of superficial obsessions with unimportant things, it comes with being young and just throwing yourself at this or that current, but I also recognize that as inadvertent part of a larger floating sense of everything feeling doable and airy, which is the essence of youthfulness.

It's what Korine brings to Spring Breakers and feels transcendent, the free wandering of mind.

Coppola tries to show some of that, for instance in the scenes of partying where time ecstatically slows, but is constantly bogged down by the surly need to press on with their neuroses and vacant desires. She adopts a catty and empty look because in her eyes they are merely catty and empty people. There's too much judgement here and not enough intuitive understanding of subtler pulls.

In the future I expect her to be torn to shreds for this one film. How is it that her Marie Antoinette, obviously modeled after her own self, can be shown wistfully in spite of the sheltered privilege as a quietly suffering soul but not these girls? It's a worthless film and even manages to reduce everything else she's done.

For someone who knows a bit the true story on which it is based, the movie absolutely puts no new perspective on the facts themselves or the members of the Bling Ring. The script consists of an extremely redundant succession of burglaries, punctuated by a few excerpts from interviews which unsubtly try to explain the motivations of those teenagers. The plot lacks substance, there is almost no dramatic tension, and even the atmosphere, one of Coppola's work's most appealing aspect, has here trouble establishing itself and carrying away the viewer. The movie gets boring quite quickly and after an hour, it seems two have passed. In the end, it is not sure that this story deserved a feature.