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The Bling Ring

Studio Canal/Pathé
What it's about:

In fame-obsessed Los Angeles, a group of teenagers take us on a thrilling and disturbing crime spree in the Hollywood hills.

Based on true events, the group, who were fixated on the glamorous life, tracked their celebrity targets online and stole more than $3 million in luxury goods from their homes. Their victims included Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom, and Rachel Bilson.

What we thought:

I think the most annoying part of the entire movie is the fact that they got into the celebrity’s houses so damn easily. It’s like none of them have ever heard of alarms (which is hilarious considering in the one scene you actually see an alarm keypad) and the fact that the movie is based on true events just makes you want to facepalm so hard at the idiocy of society’s idols.

Maybe it’s just hard to believe from a South African perspective, where having an alarm is part of everyday life.

Moving on, The Bling Ring felt so vapid that it is hard to believe that American teenagers are as devoid of morality as the film portrays. I got so bored listening to these empty egg heads talking about assumed ‘usual’ teenager worries that I was hoping their eventual arrest would hurry up.

The argument could be made that that was what director Sofia Coppola, acclaimed for Lost in Translation, aimed to do – make the characters so distant from reality to show how fictional the world of Hollywood is. There are almost no redeeming qualities about any of the characters, except maybe the male protagonist, who is the only one who shows any signs of remorse.

Emma Watson, who plays the vacuous Nicki, is a good actress, but her role in The Bling Ring is so overplayed and the fakeness seeps through her performance. On the other hand, this could be due to the directing of Coppola, who aimed to make the characters as shallow as possible. It made Bella and Edward from Twilight sound like Romeo and Juliet in comparison.

The cock amongst the hens, Israel Broussard, plays Marc who is probably the only character with some sense of depth, but this constantly shifts throughout the movie as he moves between being a little hesitant about breaking into celebs’ homes and being as shallow as his ‘friends’. Broussard didn’t have the skill to pull off the contrast effectively, which could have helped the movie immensely.

Beyond the shallowness, the plot was also devoid of any real development. They partied, they stole, they partied, they stole, they partied, and then, just to change it up, they got arrested. The end. You want character development and depth? You are better off watching Bad Grandpa.

I can’t even say that the target audience is other teenagers. In my teenage days ( which isn’t that far gone) this kind of movie would not have interested me in the slightest. There was no teenage romance, no bullies to stand up to or real authority to rebel against. It might be an extreme case of wanting to fit in, but the movie really underestimates the intelligence of American teens. Not even the most dim-witted plastics in my old high school were close to being this stupid.

Besides the Emma Watson fan club, I can’t think of any audience that would want to watch this movie - even those obsessed with the Hollywood lifestyle would find it too revealing and critical. Best to give this one a skip.
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