Bling Ring

Shallow, that is my main complaint about this film, and it's ironic because that's the point, I know. My inclination is to worm towards thinking perhaps it's brilliant in that regard, for literally having a bunch of youthful airheads spewing obtuse horrifying statements whilst maintaining expressions of complete obliviousness.

No idea where to start so, starting with the good.

A great soundtrack does not a good film make. The songs are achingly cool and apt in this film and I couldn't praise it enough. In fact just watch the trailer over and over with the soundtrack running in the background for an hour and you'll get the perfect vibe of the film without feeling short-changed at the cinema.

Along with the classy soundtrack I have to admit the film is cut together quite beautifully. Use of Facebook and some party sequences are a whole lot of fun, there is a well shot sequence of Audrina Patridge's home being burgled. There is a flair and daring to some sequences I found myself enjoying. But then this is just undercut by some sections in which interview clips are used at various points for voice overs to hammer home the points the film is trying to make. But wait? Wasn't this supposed to flesh out the story a little bit? Well, how much can we trust coming out of these people's mouths? An interview has certain constraints, and there is no honesty to anything these people are saying, they are just spouting the same crap. Sure it gives a little bit of insight but I just found it so difficult to engage with such vacuous shells? Plus voice-overs are pet peeves of mine when it comes to any kind of film in general.

Apart from our brief insights from controlled interviews all we really see is their inane conversations. This is where the film falls apart for me, the characters are so idiotic and two-dimensional it's alarming how little I cared about... well anything. Which brings me to the seemingly infallible Emma Watson; once again I find myself, distractingly underwhelmed. She's a beautiful girl, and she had so much less to work with here, she's got that American accent nailed and I can appreciate how hard it is to be airheaded and shallow when in reality you're a thoughtful and caring talented young woman, but it's not a performance I would rate. From the scant few things I've heard about this film everyone has raved about Emma Watson, from what I can see she simply got a plum role, she was given more fun stuff to work with, but any other actress could have probably done a pretty decent job -  she had a few more interesting scenes and had to say obtuse things with a straight face. I just always feel like screaming at the screen 'EMOTE GODAMNIT!' Perhaps there are subtleties to her acting that I simply cannot see, or maybe this just wasn't a role which demanded any strong emotions besides the ocassional perfunctory statement and acting like a brat.

As for the rest of the cast there was about as much charisma among them as I would find simply standing next to line of lampposts*. Not the brightest bulbs it would seem and as their star-power combined couldn't compare to Emma Wattage, it would seem there's not much more to say than, they also failed to make any impact. It's a shame too because after much reflection I think the two main players had a chance to make a real go of it with the material; Marc for example is a unique character and we get the bare bones of his motivations but perhaps the constraints of moving the plot along and taking photos of themselves with their phones got in the way. He does a couple interesting things but it doesn't require any serious heavy lifting on the actors part apart from dicking about mostly...

Sofia Coppola is director famed for allowing the plot to take place and simply following through with the sequence of events, she doesn't get too involved in trying to make any statement, she simply allows what is happening to speak for itself; she's non-judgemental and therefore doesn't make a point of condemning or celebrating the actions of the Bling Ring. Is this fair? It would be fair to say, we spend a lot more time with the gang when they are robbing and living vicariously, rather than the fallout of their actions, but it's not a cautionary tale, Coppola simply is telling the story and the effective end is the gang being sentenced for their crimes and going their separate ways. (It's not a spoiler, watch the news.) In this regard it's quite a simple story, but one that hasn't really done like this before and for the most part it works in a kind of flashy Hollywood version of events, with those flourishes and awesome tunes playing. But hey for it to work for me as a good film it had to be more, more thought through, more interesting, more to chew over, and for what it was, it was pretty lean.

There is a stand-out scene for me, in which the girls, having just looted Paris Hilton's house for what would seem like the fifth time, they discover she has the same dress twice. Later we're at the club having a good old party, Emma Watson is throwing some moves on the dance-floor in a natty dress and her mate is pounding the tiles with her in the exact same dress. There is no giant arrow pointing this out, it's subtly done, but it spoke volumes to me. Hey all the money in the world isn't going to make you an individual, all these beautiful things exist and there are copies of them everywhere, because someone else has it you value it more, etc etc. It was a sly well done few seconds visual humour. There was also a funny aside in which Marc steals some pink Paris Hilton shoes and they make some reappearances through the film. These little flourishes made Bling Ring seem smarter than I would have initially given it credit for but then again, as Coppola isn't doing much more than showing us what happened rather than casting judgement, there isn't really much else going on beneath the surface.

The interest in this film lies in seeing what's happening in these celebrities homes, which all, apart from Paris Hilton's house, look like actual normal homes. What is quite befuddling is that with all the money in the world, people still forget to lock all their doors, or invest in better security, but hey when there Rolexes in the cupboard and Prada in the walk-in closet let's leave the back porch open! Also Megan Fox with a gun under the bed is just frankly alarming, especially when these people are rooting through her drawers... The good sport Hilton is, she actually let the crew film in her real house, with her real cushions with her face and her walls covered in her picture, clearly she has no issue with exposing herself to people, or her idiocy of leaving her keys under the mat.

So there are fun and games to be had. I won't deny the film has a good crack at trying to make a point as to why these people are how they are, with the interview voice-over work and some Leslie Mann school of crazy scenes, but it's so hard to care when the performances are flat and the trajectory of the plot becomes tedious.

I will probably always have this problem with Sofia Coppola's films, they simply don't have charisma. Lost in Translation, her best film by a mile was elevated to a different plane simply by having Bill Murray. Obviously Bill Murray is one of the greatest actors that ever lived and it's hard to cap the kind of quality he brings to proceedings, but even with a minimalist plot and a meandering sense of meaninglessness, Murray just brought so much to so little, he just effervesces charisma. Ever since Coppola has tried to recapture this, specifically with Somewhere, which was just awful. Bling Ring is witty in it's own way, it has those visual flourishes and there is food for thought there, but it's all buried beneath the fact that the actors/characters are nothing to get excited about, nothing to be interested in.

It's a shallow world we live in, it's a shallow bunch of people we are with, so it's only fair that I find myself disconnected from this particular lifestyle and sequence of events, there is no personal interest in there for me. Sure I like to read the gossip magazines, know who's with who, what beautiful dresses they are wearing, but I acknowledge the disconnect between that world and my own. The characters are Bling Ring are trying desperately to be a part of that world, but it's just so pointless, I can't begin to sympathise with them. This is of course unfair to all films everywhere as the rich tapestry of life and the film industry begs me to view other people's lives and views removing myself from my own assumptions - but in this case I find the disconnect from this world and my own too frustrating, it's so close yet so alien at the same time... It's fame money hungry youngsters wanting more from life, it's so easy to understand, and yet I intensely dislike the whole bunch of them. Coppola clearly doesn't want me to like the bunch of them but still. I want to understand, otherwise what's the point of basing this on real events? It might as well be fantasy; which is what these people are trying to attain, their own fantasies... I'm just talking myself into circles here. To me if there was something more there, perhaps better actors, better scripting, some better way of conveying the story to make it really pop out of the screen... I don't know what that is though and usually I have a vague idea what is missing from a film.

The soundtrack is cool, the editing is nifty, there are flashes of brilliance, but overall I can't find myself loving this film because there is nothing to galvanise this all together to make it great, it's just missing something, something special... And no it's not Bill Murray, although all films are made infinitely better with his presence, it's just something more transcendental, it just didn't click for me.

*It would seem when words fail me I just go with lamppost. It seemed apt here, they are all skinny bright young things...