The Bling Ring (15.)
Directed by Sofia Coppola.
Starring Katie Chang, Israel Broussard, Emma Watson, Claire Julien, Taissa Farmiga and Leslie Mann. 90 mins
Sofia Coppola continues her chronicling of the alienation of wealth and fame with this true story about affluent LA High School students who rob from the rich to keep for themselves. The real life gang earned their own celebrity when they were finally caught after “going shopping” at Lindsay Lohan house.
Faced with a script where much of the dialogue is Wows, No Ways and Oh My Gods, it initially feels like a trite, facile condemnation of a trite facile lifestyle (much like her previous film Somewhere), but Coppola’s film slowly reveals itself to be something a bit more than that.
The world of celebrity obsession and perplexed valley girl speak has become almost impossible to satirize. It is so protectively two dimensional that any assault on it just rebounds back on the attacker, in the way that whenever someone has a dig at the vapidity of Paris Hilton or a Kardashian it somehow just makes them look shallow. They are their own parody and are now encased in a bubble of airhead invulnerability. So although the Bling Ring is very funny in places, the humour has no great impact.
What it has though is a finely balanced morally ambiguity. In many ways the gang’s activities are quite harmless. They enter the properties when they know that the celebrity is out of town through unlocked doors or windows, or by using keys left under the mat and take from people so ludicrously over-rewarded that usually don’t notice anything is missing. Yet at the same time there is a marvellously understated sense of the levels of hostility bubbling under these home invasions. If it was ever made explicit, if any overt reference to Charles Manson was made, then the effect would be lost. It just seeps in and the joke turns dark without you noticing.
Coppola is aided by fine performances from all her cast, especially Chang. Throughout the film her face looks open and serene, like a flower soaking up the sun while conveying layers of hidden menace.
Directed by Sofia Coppola.
Starring Katie Chang, Israel Broussard, Emma Watson, Claire Julien, Taissa Farmiga and Leslie Mann. 90 mins
Sofia Coppola continues her chronicling of the alienation of wealth and fame with this true story about affluent LA High School students who rob from the rich to keep for themselves. The real life gang earned their own celebrity when they were finally caught after “going shopping” at Lindsay Lohan house.
Faced with a script where much of the dialogue is Wows, No Ways and Oh My Gods, it initially feels like a trite, facile condemnation of a trite facile lifestyle (much like her previous film Somewhere), but Coppola’s film slowly reveals itself to be something a bit more than that.
The world of celebrity obsession and perplexed valley girl speak has become almost impossible to satirize. It is so protectively two dimensional that any assault on it just rebounds back on the attacker, in the way that whenever someone has a dig at the vapidity of Paris Hilton or a Kardashian it somehow just makes them look shallow. They are their own parody and are now encased in a bubble of airhead invulnerability. So although the Bling Ring is very funny in places, the humour has no great impact.
What it has though is a finely balanced morally ambiguity. In many ways the gang’s activities are quite harmless. They enter the properties when they know that the celebrity is out of town through unlocked doors or windows, or by using keys left under the mat and take from people so ludicrously over-rewarded that usually don’t notice anything is missing. Yet at the same time there is a marvellously understated sense of the levels of hostility bubbling under these home invasions. If it was ever made explicit, if any overt reference to Charles Manson was made, then the effect would be lost. It just seeps in and the joke turns dark without you noticing.
Coppola is aided by fine performances from all her cast, especially Chang. Throughout the film her face looks open and serene, like a flower soaking up the sun while conveying layers of hidden menace.
