MOVIE OF THE WEEK #1 (6/21/13) THE BLING RING
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"OMG LOL they'll be SMH when they see this pic on Facebook!" Rebecca (Katie Chang) and Marc (Israel Broussard) pose for the camera in a scene from writer/director Sofia Coppola's THE BLING RING. Credit: EPK.tv.
KEY CAST MEMBERS: Katie Chang, Israel Broussard, Emma Watson, Claire Julien, Taissa Farmiga, Georgia Rock, Leslie Mann and Gavin Rossdale
WRITER(S): Sofia Coppola
DIRECTOR(S): Sofia Coppola
WEB SITE: http://www.theblingring.com/
60 SECOND PLOT SYNOPSIS: Inspired by real events, The Bling Ring follows a group of teenagers – Rebecca (Katie Chang), Nicki (Emma Watson), Emily (Georgia Rock), Sam (Taissa Farmiga), Chloe (Claire Julien) and Marc (Israel Broussard) – who are like many teens today: They like to party, they experiment with drugs and drinking and they want to be famous/live glamorously. They, however, have one activity they enjoy that isn't common among many teens today: Walking into the homes of celebrities and stealing their clothes, cash and jewelry.
Literally walking into homes belonging to stars like Audrina Partridge, Rachel Bilson and Paris Hilton among others, the gang perpetrates, parties and pillages, enjoying the fruits of the celebrities' labor whenever they want. But what happens once their brazen ways set them up for potential failure?
WHO WILL LIKE THIS FILM THE MOST: People who are still shocked by reports of young celebrities acting out, teens who want to live like the characters in the film (save for the last 20 minutes0, sheltered children who are just now getting exposed to this element of society much like young Amish teens during Rumspringa; die-hard Sofia Coppola fans
Literally walking into homes belonging to stars like Audrina Partridge, Rachel Bilson and Paris Hilton among others, the gang perpetrates, parties and pillages, enjoying the fruits of the celebrities' labor whenever they want. But what happens once their brazen ways set them up for potential failure?
WHO WILL LIKE THIS FILM THE MOST: People who are still shocked by reports of young celebrities acting out, teens who want to live like the characters in the film (save for the last 20 minutes0, sheltered children who are just now getting exposed to this element of society much like young Amish teens during Rumspringa; die-hard Sofia Coppola fans
WHO WON'T LIKE THIS FILM: People tired of Hollywood reinforcing familiar stories/empowering the worst elements of youth culture, those interested in compelling, multi-layered stories, anyone uninterested in celebrity worship
BOTTOM LINE – IS IT GOOD, GREAT, BAD OR DOWNRIGHT AWFUL? Downright awful from start to finish.
WHAT'S GOOD (OR BAD) ABOUT IT?: Upon leaving the theater, I had a very simple thought about The Bling Ring: If you could make a very well-done movie about a very uninteresting subject that offers no new insight into its subject matter, would you? Here's a better question, if that said film featured one-note characters, seemingly glorifies the very types of characters it is trying to chronicle and then ends abruptly with a bland ending, SHOULD you make it?
Sofia Coppola did. I wish she hadn't. And unless you really want to watch children behaving badly because well, they can, The Bling Ring is about as played out as the term "bling" itself.
The acting in The Bling Ring is either phenomenal or absolutely terrible, for the cast is so convincing at playing vacuous, annoying, completely removed from reality teenagers that you hate each and every one of them on a personal level (which is likely what was intended). Likewise, the story is so bland - it's kind of a cop out to spend 20 minutes of a 90 minute movie dwelling on just how infatuated with Paris Hilton the kids are – it's hard to vested in continuing to watch it. Throw in the stereotypical nature of most of the characters (especially poor Leslie Mann's continued playing it up as Watson's character's clueless, over-protective home-schooling mom) and the affair becomes even more disconcerting.
Now, I realize all of this could be read as someone out of touch with the subject matter if this film offered some deeper/more critical take on the situation. According to the film's production notes, the film is intended to reflect "on the naiveté of youth and the mistakes we all make when young, amplified by today's culture of celebrity and luxury brand obsession, we see through the members of the 'Bling Ring' temptations that almost any teenager would feel. What starts out as teenage fun spins out of control and leaves us with a sobering view of our culture today."
There just one problem with that statement: No, The Bling Ring doesn't do any of this. Instead, it ends up glamorizing the pursuit of fame and how we've all come to somehow accept it in the era of any publicity, even bad publicity, is good publicity.
For a filmmaker with such a strong pedigree, The Bling Ring feels "lost in translation" ... Make of that what you will.
WHAT'S GOOD (OR BAD) ABOUT IT?: Upon leaving the theater, I had a very simple thought about The Bling Ring: If you could make a very well-done movie about a very uninteresting subject that offers no new insight into its subject matter, would you? Here's a better question, if that said film featured one-note characters, seemingly glorifies the very types of characters it is trying to chronicle and then ends abruptly with a bland ending, SHOULD you make it?
Sofia Coppola did. I wish she hadn't. And unless you really want to watch children behaving badly because well, they can, The Bling Ring is about as played out as the term "bling" itself.
The acting in The Bling Ring is either phenomenal or absolutely terrible, for the cast is so convincing at playing vacuous, annoying, completely removed from reality teenagers that you hate each and every one of them on a personal level (which is likely what was intended). Likewise, the story is so bland - it's kind of a cop out to spend 20 minutes of a 90 minute movie dwelling on just how infatuated with Paris Hilton the kids are – it's hard to vested in continuing to watch it. Throw in the stereotypical nature of most of the characters (especially poor Leslie Mann's continued playing it up as Watson's character's clueless, over-protective home-schooling mom) and the affair becomes even more disconcerting.
Now, I realize all of this could be read as someone out of touch with the subject matter if this film offered some deeper/more critical take on the situation. According to the film's production notes, the film is intended to reflect "on the naiveté of youth and the mistakes we all make when young, amplified by today's culture of celebrity and luxury brand obsession, we see through the members of the 'Bling Ring' temptations that almost any teenager would feel. What starts out as teenage fun spins out of control and leaves us with a sobering view of our culture today."
There just one problem with that statement: No, The Bling Ring doesn't do any of this. Instead, it ends up glamorizing the pursuit of fame and how we've all come to somehow accept it in the era of any publicity, even bad publicity, is good publicity.
The Bling Ring doesn't humanize its subjects, it doesn't demonize its subjects, it just kind of presents them as "Here they are ... They want want to be famous and live lavishly." We just get to watch Chang (who does do a good job acting-wise, actually), Watson (who seems to be sleep walking by comparison), Broussard, Julien and Farmiga live it up, have no redeeming (or interesting, frankly) qualities save for the paint-by-numbers epilogues which ends with a point that was evident from the opening sequence. In age of Real Housewives, Honey Boo Boo and about three dozen reality shows (do you REALLY need me to mention them all?) where the point – fame is the drug everyone wants and being famous for being bad is just as good as the alternative – is everyone is doing something to be famous, The Bling Ring is flat, lazy and rather boring.
We've seen these types of people before; The Bling Ring just brings us a fictionalized version of the real people to whom we've already and continue to be overexposed to. You get nothing new watching the film whatsoever. I think the words of Lt. Frank Drebin might sum it up best ...
We've seen these types of people before; The Bling Ring just brings us a fictionalized version of the real people to whom we've already and continue to be overexposed to. You get nothing new watching the film whatsoever. I think the words of Lt. Frank Drebin might sum it up best ...
For a filmmaker with such a strong pedigree, The Bling Ring feels "lost in translation" ... Make of that what you will.
RATING (OUT OF FOUR BUCKETS OF POPCORN):
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