NZIFF Review: ‘The Bling Ring’

Based on a Vanity Fair article, The Bling Ring tells the story of a group of privileged LA teenagers who get their kicks breaking into celebrities’ houses and nicking their stuff.

The story unfolds through the eyes of Marc, the new kid at Indian Hills High, who is thrilled when sassy, sexy Rebecca notices him and asks him to hang out. They begin their lives of crime breaking into unlocked cars and lifting wallets, credit cards or drugs wherever they find them. From there, it’s no long before they’re breaking into the home of one of Marc’s friends.

Buoyed by the ease of their criminal triumph, Rebecca suggests they target Paris Hilton’s place next – she thinks, correctly, that Paris would be the type to leave a key under the doormat. They brazenly help themselves to the wealth of clothes, jewellery and handbags on offer, posing in the stolen clothing and posting the shots to Facebook.

Soon they’ve told their group of air-headed friends and the whole gang goes to Paris’s place. The criminal masterminds move on to other celebrities, using gossip sites to find out when they are out of town and breaking in with ease to shop for their wardrobes.

I found the lack of security at these celebrity homes beggared belief, but since this is based on a true story, I have to assume they really don’t have burglar alarms.

Before long, the media-tagged ‘Bling Ring’ have racked up $3 million in stolen goods.

This is an entertaining film, but one without much depth. None of the characters develop much, and unfortunately we only see glimpses of the unsatisfying home lives that must have led to their need to fill the void with shiny objects. None of the gang ever speaks about what they want out of life in anything but the most superficial of ways: a fashion line, fragrances, the trappings of empty celebrity.

Well, they got that. With jail time thrown in for good measure.

While Coppola probably wanted this to be a critique of the world’s obsession with celebrity, it doesn’t quite work – precisely because they’ve taken a trivial approach to the subject of superficiality. The film feels as flimsy as a celebrity gossip magazine – glossy, slick surfaces without anything of substance underneath.

6/10

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