The Bling Ring (2013)

Film: The Bling Ring (2013)
Stars: Katie Chang, Israel Broussard, Emma Watson, Claire Julien, Taissa Farmiga, Georgia Rock, Leslie Mann
Director: Sofia Coppola
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 5/5 stars

I've watched five films so far this weekend, and if I don't get exhausted, it will be a sixth by the end of the night.  When you watch so many films in rapid succession, you have to decide in what order do you review the movies: do I go with the best film (thus peaking early and later giving a four-paragraph review to the worst of the bunch), do I write chronologically (avoiding the risk of forgetting something), or do I go worst to first (even more tragically, potentially short-shifting the film I most want you to see of the bunch)?  It's a bit of a predicament, and so I'm going to start with the film that made me think the most, which not-so-coincidentally is also the best of the bunch.

For those of you who don't spend your entire life on TMZ, you might not remember the Hollywood Hills robberies that took place in late 2008 and early 2009, where a group of teenagers spent their nights breaking into the homes of some of Hollywood's biggest stars and stealing clothes, jewelry, shoes, bags, and cash (and allegedly some drugs).  The robberies were chronicled in a must-read article called "The Suspects Wore Louboutins," by Nancy Jo Sales for Vanity Fair.

The film has multiple layers, but let's start with the most, obvious, the plot.  The film starts with Rebecca (Chang) befriending Marc (Broussard), a closeted (super closeted-I mean, could they have at least mentioned it once) gay kid who doesn't have a lot of friends at a "dropout" school.  Rebecca instantly picks up a kindred spirit vibe from Marc, and invites him out with her to a bar.  There they meet up with Sam (Farmiga), Chloe (Julien), and Nicki (Watson), all of whom are into the same party-and-fashion scenes that they are.  Once, on a lark, Rebecca and Marc decide that with Paris Hilton out of the state, they are able to break-into the celebrity's mansion, and they do, robbing her just enough so that she wouldn't notice anything was gone.

Soon Sam, Chloe, and Nicki are all involved in their breaking into other random celebrities' houses, and for a good long while, nothing remotely bad happens to them, with the exception of the occasional car accident.  Whereas almost any other director would have spent more time on the "getting caught," and the pursuant criminal case, Coppola instead focuses on the fruits of the group's labor-the way they managed to break repeatedly into the same celebrities homes and steal their stuff (eventually, in excess of $3 million worst of designer labels and spare cash).  We see how easy something like this apparently was (and indeed, even by the most conservative of estimates they broke into the homes of some of the biggest paparazzi targets of 2008).  And eventually, we see their downfall.

But it's not the downfall that you'd necessarily expect.  Yes, they all fall, but in a weird twist, they do get their fifteen minutes of fame.  The paparazzi follow around the teens, who soak up the attention, trying to be both "innocent" (their lawyers recommending that they not speak) and yet wanting their press as much as possible (Sam, played by Farmiga, doesn't get arrested and opines how she doesn't get to be famous with Watson's Nicki in a late scene in the movie).  The film ends with the teens headed to prison, and Watson's Nicki talking about what it was like to share a cell near one of the group's targets, Lindsay Lohan.

There's so much to glean from Coppola's straight-forward and matter-of-fact style of filmmaking, and the way that she keeps focus on the characters, not just the sensational story.  The characters' motives never really change in the film-they just desperately want a life they feel they're entitled to have.  They're all young, attractive, and live a life of partying by day and trying out for modeling gigs and cruising through the swankiest of beaches and clubs.  They steal not just because they want these things or to be able to have a certain lifestyle, but because they feel they are entitled to them, that the media has promised this lifestyle to them through reality television and constant celebrity news. They discuss the celebrities they are stealing from with intimate knowledge of their lives.  Twitter, gossip sites, and the tabloidization of the 24-hour news cycle have made it seem as if we know celebrities intimately, and  the characters speak as such in the movie.

The film also takes a pretty pressing and nasty look at the throwaway aspect of fame.  The film spends more time centered on celebrities that are famous for being beautiful than for anything substantive-these teens are not stealing from Angelina Jolie or Jennifer Aniston or even young actors like Rachel McAdams or Emma Stone.  By-and-large they are stealing from the Paris Hiltons, the Lindsay Lohans, the Audrina Patridges, the Miranda Kerrs-women who are more famous for their beauty and partying and label-driven personas than for acting or singing or any other artistry.  Though all of them have some sort of root to their public fame (except perhaps Patridge), in 2008 they are at the point in their careers where they are more famous-for-being-famous than for anything else.

So in showing in the end that these thieves got exactly what they were hoping for by stealing from these homes (the paparazzi, lots of chances to be photographed in beautiful outfits, and fleeting fame), Coppola isn't just showing how meaningless and paltry fame is, she's also showing how trivial and quick-shifting notoriety can be.  The likes of Paris Hilton, Audrina Patridge, and Mischa Barton, all mentioned in the film were once global names, but they are largely forgotten by the press now, replaced by younger and newer names like Selena Gomez, Emma Roberts, and Kendall Jenner.  The film doesn't shy away from how quickly fame evaporates, and how materialistic the aspect of celebrity has become.

The film isn't afraid to also point a good long look at the audience, particularly the Gen Y audience that grew up with these names.  I remember when gossiping about the girls on The Hills or Paris or Lindsay or Mischa Barton was commonplace, and while the callowness of the characters is probably more vapid than what your average follower of news may tend to believe themselves capable, we all throw around gossip and opinions about celebrities with relish.  It's fun to talk about designers and swank and clubs and to toss off these names as if they are part of our lives, but it's also a fine line between gossip and when that cattiness and shallowness that is presumed in this lifestyle crosses over into how we live our lives.

I'm going to leave it there, even though there's a lot more to mine from this deceptively simple film.  I will say that Emma Watson, so consistent in all of the Harry Potter films, is the indisputable highlight in this movie, perfectly mimicking the upwards inflections and the "speaking as if being filmed" dialogue that a teenage girl of this era obsessed with The O.C. and The Hills and The Simple Life would be using on a daily basis.  There isn't a moment that she's onscreen that you aren't startled by how cringingly real she keeps her character, somehow making her seem both a ditz and Machiavellian (and selling the hell out of both).  Between this and Perks of Being a Wallflower last year, it's impossible to deny that the girl has mad skills.

Those are my thoughts, but what are yours-what did you think of Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring?  Considering Sofia has her share of lovers and haters, where did you fall on this spectrum? Did you find yourself analyzing your own love of celebrity gossip?  And what do you hope for next from Emma Watson and her increasingly thespian skills?