The Bling Ring

I loathe going to the cinema on my own, which often means, frustratingly, that due to having friends who dislike cinemas (no, I don't understand either), I miss out on films I want to see until the DVD comes out. Thankfully, my brother's predictable Emma Watson crush meant that it was easy to persuade him to come see Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring with me. Although he thought it was pretty average, I thought that it was exactly what I expected (after my Man of Steel experience, this is a massive plus).

Due to its oddly limited cinema distribution, we bucked our usual trend and saw it in Bath's Little Theatre Cinema, which is always a treat I forget about, with curtains over the two screens and old-fashioned plush seating without cup holders and the like. Plus, you can get tea/coffee at the concessions stand, which gives a pleasingly homey touch to the experience.

As usual with Coppola, there's a hefty dose of shots of things lending the atmosphere, as well as shot-from-web-cam-esque scenes that emphasize the concern-with-outside-image that the film is highlighting. The semi-grittiness of the heist CCTV shots contrasted nicely with the sunshine and fun youthfulness of scenes of the group partying, making what could have been seen as glamorous distinctly less 'cool'.

A lot of the time the group came across as posers, which, considering the occasional flashes of uncertainty in Mark, reinforced the idea that the teenagers are all playing up to their peers, that the situation started as a laugh and got a little out of control. Coppola said in an interview that she listened to how teens spoke to each other when writing the film; the sincerity coming from Watson's character when she tells her adopted sister that her ass looks great, as though that is what truly mattered in life, was like an even eerier version of the Mean Girls standing in a mirror listing their physical 'imperfections' as a bonding exercise.

Coming as a critique of society's obsession with celebrity, the film's slight hollowness in comparison to Copolla's other outings was probably deliberate, and perhaps it's a sign of the direction films are going in that 90mins felt a little too short. Equally it could just be the way that Nikki Moore still seemed determined to find a way into 'the lifestyle' when usually films end in some kind of transformation that made the credit rolling seem a slight shock. These teenagers may not be aspirational - far from it, but at least we might all learn to lock our doors...
image via redcarpetcrash.com