The death of our youth...
Innocence lost due to the struggling life of stardom is something that Sophia Coppola likes to explore. Maybe it's her background, being brought up in a household that revolved around the arts and was always smothered by fame. In fact, `Somewhere', her least well known film, is said to be an autobiography of sorts (with regards to her childhood with her father). Yes, fame, fortune and the emptiness that comes along with it is something that Coppola has staked her career on. From the solemn romanticism of `Lost in Translation' to the flamboyant ostracism of `Marie Antoinette' to the quiet understanding of `Somewhere', Coppola has exploited nearly every facet of fame and the disastrous effects it has on those caught up in it.
With `The Bling Ring', Coppola moves away from the more intimate aspects of fame and dissects the dangers that that very drug has, not on those who have it by on those who want it. One could call to mind the fascination Coppola flirted with in her...
Exposing the hollowness of the bling culture
"The Bling Ring" (2013 release; 90 min.) brings the now-familiar story of how a group of teenagers living in suburban Los Angeles, with too much time on their hands and an insatiable appetite for "bling", decide to start robbing houses of celebrities while they are out of town. I am not spoiling the plot when I tell you that the "group of five" (4 girls and 1 guy), along with a couple of others, eventually get found out and caught. The first 50-55 min. of the movie deal with the break-ins and the remainder of the movie looks at what happens after their arrests.
Several comments: this is the 5th feature movie directed by Sofia Coppola, and as has been the case with her previous films, this movie is highly stylish in the way it looks at and brings the lives of these teenagers. In fact, the movie is eye-candy pretty much from start to finish. Coppola wrote the script based on the 2010 Vanity Fair article that exposed it all in details not seen before. As to the Bling Ring...
Superficial, voyeuristic... the things this film should be.
A quick scan of rotten tomatoes before this rental showed many criticisms hinged on a lack of character development and unclear meaning. This is why the film is good. Among all characters there were no facile attempts to create a plot or dialogue that goes beyond theft and the desire for fashion. No dumb love story. No developed background into the families that these kids are brought up in (aside from the mutual detachment of the kids and parents). This lack of development and depth seems to be an appropriate commentary on the thought processes that accompany this crime, there isn't much regard for forethought or consequence. Perhaps this is what I liked the most, is as a viewer, we are asked to simply watch and see what happens, which isn't a long shot from what the characters are doing themselves. It's mindless, but it's fun (and it looks good in the process). Aren't films allowed to be just that? If one wishes, there is plenty of substrate here for a commentary on the...
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