Monday, June 10, 2013

THE BLING RING Review

Studio: A24 
Writer / Director:  Sofia Coppola (LOST IN TRANSLATION) 
Cast:  Emma Watson, Katie Chang, Leslie Mann 
Coming to a theatre near you:  6/21/13

If you are like me, you have seen the posters for THE BLING RING, but do not have the slightest idea of the movie’s premise.  (If not, skip to the next paragraph.)  THE BLING RING is based on real events reported by Nancy Jo Sales in a Vanity Fair article, about a group of high schoolers, who rob celebrities’ houses by tracking their out-of-town dates through celebrity blogs.

Writer / director, Sofia Coppola is not too interested in character development or criminalizing the culprits.  Instead, she draws parallels between the lives of these n’er do gooders and the lives of the reality stars and B-list celebrities who were victims in the robberies.  Coppola points to some uncanny similarities and threads them throughout the film.    

Therein lies the most interesting part of the story.  Stars put a face to aspirational living and would have us believe it comes with golden-handcuffs because they trade their privacy in for it.  Critics would say:   “Don’t complain about your loss of privacy because you signed up for that when you decided to become a star.”

But don’t we Average Joe’s and Jane’s do the same?  We create Facebook profiles and use “friend request” and “delete” like velvet ropes.  We tweet the most menial thoughts we have to the most profound and Instagram our dinner.  Then we demand that these sites, which we have volunteered our information to, respect our privacy. 

Thus the lines between the celebrity and the layman have become blurred because the barrier of entry to super-stardom is at an all-time low.  We are all one sex-tape, heckle of a public figure or Youtube-clip away from TMZ following us to our cars.   Naturally in the end, that’s exactly what happens to the kids in this film.  Success? 


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