Director: Sofia Coppola
Year: 2013
Country: USA
I learned one thing from watching The Bling Ring – celebrities are really easy to burgle. Apparently they don’t lock their doors, they advertise when they’re out of town, and they don’t miss their stuff. There in lies the problem with the movie – you learn nothing other than this.
The Bling Ring tells the true story of a gang of L.A rich kids who start to rob the homes of the rich and famous (and Rachel Bilson). They don’t do this out of necessity but just to own some of their idols’ belongings. It’s a pretty interesting story that director Sofia Coppola doesn’t explore in an interesting way.
The pattern the running time takes is as follows:
1. Boy thief looks up Google for celebs away from home
2. Gang goes to empty house and steal handbags/money/watches
3. They walk straight out with the booty
4. Repeat this on next celebrity
Basically that’s all that happens until their inevitable capture. These are one dimensional characters stealing things they don’t need and the film somehow manages to be as shallow as them. Why do they feel the need to rob them? Who is really in charge? What are the repercussions of this crime spree?
These questions don’t get answered with the little brats not changing in any way at all. Coppola is only interested in showing the crimes and lifestyles of the little shits and spends no time fleshing out the characters. They are acted pretty well, including a scarily natural performance by Emma Watson as a materialistic air-head. However the acting isn’t enough to save The Bling Ring from being an empty exercise in style over substance which is ironic considering the subject matter.
Your enjoyment of the film comes down to whether you care about people with too much money stealing from other people with too much money. At best it’s boring and at worst it’s insulting. The Bling Ring has nothing much to say about the cult of celebrity or about materialistic youths but at least it’s a crash course in how to rob Paris Hilton so it’s not all bad.
5/10
The Bling Ring opens UK wide on 5th July 2013
Screenkicker! 
Emma Watson, only reason why I will watch this one. Good review.
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Thanks! Its quite entertaining but very vacuous. Emma Watson is good in it though
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Great review! Damn – that’s very disappointing to hear! I would have expected something much deeper from Sofia Coppola. I love Lost In Translation.
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Aw thanks buddy. Maybe I missed something but it all seemed pretty shallow to me
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she looks old here. she reminds me of that woman in CSI Las Vegas, Marga.
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You mean the woman in CSI that strangely gets younger every year?!
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I know Emma wouldn’t have a hard time portraying this. It’s like portraying herself as a brat
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Apparently she spent a lot of time with the real life girl she’s playing and basically plays the character the same. Which she’s very good at by the way
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[…] here that the two men are trying to make a life. This is Martin Bonner is the polar opposite of The Bling Ring. It’s a film about a good man doing good things and this makes it refreshing. It’s also […]
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Good review Mikey. I expected more from Coppola than just a style that’s downbeat and repetitive. I get that she didn’t want to judge these characters for who they were and just let the story tell itself, but after after awhile, I needed/wanted more from what I was seeing.
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Thanks mate, I agree about her not wanting to judge them but feel like she should have had some position on the characters
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[…] you missed the award winning (I bought myself a beer for getting through The Bling Ring) coverage last year you can read it all here! If you want to, I’m not forcing you. Do […]
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