The Bling Ring (Film Review)

The Bling Ring can be highly enjoyable depending on how one views the film.   For myself, I see it as both a dark comedy and a sad tragedy, with morals that speak loud and clear.  The story tells the tale of a group of celebrity obsessed teenagers who begin a robbing spree of said celebrity’s homes.  For a while they enjoy the life of fame and fortune from their plundering; but soon end up with more than they can deal with as the police begin to investigate into the robberies of their group known by the media as “The Bling Ring”.

It takes both guts and craftsmanship to create a film where the main cast and everything surrounding them are both equally despicable and shallow.  The characters consist of their ringleader Rebecca (Katie Chang), sisters Nicki and Sam Moore (Emma Watson, Taissa Farmiga), their adopted sister Chloe (Claire Julien), and male Marc Hall (Israel Broussard).  The actions taken by these teens throughout the film would be placed on the lowest spots of my own moral values (in others words, they’re downright evil).  Chloe crashes her car while not paying attention to the road; yet instead of being grateful for her and her friends’ safety, she’s more ticked off at having to work community service because of it.  Another time she accidentally fires a stolen gun that nearly misses herself and her boyfriend, yet shows little (if any) care for their near death experience; instead moving right onto sex.  The characters steal (obviously), but also lie, cheat, betray their friends, use drugs, and show the utmost obnoxious unsympathetic personalities I've ever seen.  Marc is the only character that I found showed any sympathetic qualities (slight guilt for stealing, some loyalty to friends), but at the most these qualities were barely admirable.  I repeat, it take both guts and skill to take to worst qualities of us human beings, place them in the main characters, and create a film that would normally cause me to throw my popcorn at the screen at storm outside the theater.  Yet here I am, praising Sofia Coppola’s film not just as a decent film, but a good one.  So the question remains, how does she put this off?

I find two major reasons Coppola puts this film off.  The first is the film’s comedy, which as I stated before is as dark as it is funny.  As a viewer, I often find that the best sort of comedy comes from the character’s lack of good or reasonable judgment; in other words their lack of common sense and intelligence.  I know for a fact that I am hardly alone when it comes to this statement, as millions of others find this type of comedy just as amusing.  We find it funny to see characters (both fictional and real) act idiotic; seeing just how far and how shocking they will be with their behavior.  However, its reality TV shows that do particularly well in this category; with tons of people tuning in to watch shows like Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, Jersey Shore, and Pretty Wicked Moms for their own personal amusement.  This is where The Bling Ring’s comedy comes from; the cast of characters’ utter stupidity.  I laughed and awed at just how dumb they can act, at how superficial they were, and at how much they can screw up the English language in one sentence.  The scene where Chloe nearly kills herself and her boyfriend with the gun was had me in shocking laughing at just how oblivious they were to near death.  Their shocking stupidity and lack of morals brings a form of dark entertainment for me as a viewer.  Yet there are other aspects that I also laughed at; such as how dumb the celebrities they steal from are and at how stupid the parents and adults act as well.  And that’s the second reason Coppola pulls off The Bling Ring, through its underlining tragedy.

The underlining tragedy is what surrounds and encompasses the film’s characters and plot.  The adults seen in this film (such as the parents and teachers) all possess negative characteristics.  They’re dim-witted, naive, neglectful, foolish, or just strait up bad at being responsible guiding adults for the teens.  Both kids and teens need people to look up to, to learn from, and to help mold them into better human beings.  Most of the time this responsibility falls upon parents, guardians, or teachers of these youths; but what happens when they fail to live up to their jobs?  What happens when the kids don’t have these people to help guide them through life; who takes there place?  The Bling Ring, answers these questions with a sadly realistic answer.  The responsibility is instead placed upon the irresponsible and immature reality stars and celebrities the kids see on TV.  Our main characters look up to celebrities like Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan as idols; letting them mold their lives instead of the parents and teachers.  The teens become enamored by them and begin to want to live the way they live (rich, spoiled, famous, “talked about”).  They start doing other activities as well, activities they've see their idols do (such as going to night clubs, partying, dressing scantily, drugs, alcohol, sex).  None of their parents try to stop them, they don’t even know what’s going on in their kids’ lives (or worse, they know but choose to ignore it/let them get away with it).  The teens moral values are being corrupted by the bad ideas or choices of their idols own bad morals. 

Yet for The Bling Ring gang, this is not good enough.  This is where the stealing comes in; as a way to copy their idols lifestyles through actions of breaking/entering and theft (living in their houses, wearing their clothes, using their stuff).  There’s a scene where Rebecca uses one of her idols’ perfume at her house.  She turns to look in the mirror and gives off a smile of complete bliss; for once she finally feels like an idol herself, perhaps she even feels like she accomplished something grand.  They believe this is the best way to become successful in life; and in turn they may be right as some of them end up being rewarded for their bad actions.  Take the character of Nicki for example.  It may sound silly but it takes particular skill to effectively play a character this stupid and plastic; but Emma Watson pulls it off by making her a fascinating mix of spoiled rotten brat, and comedic genius.  Nicki is a perfect example of how our society can end up molding a child into something bad and then reward said child for his/her rotten behavior.  She’s stuck up, spoiled, obnoxious, and entirely selfish.  She treats her actions of stealing and burglary with a sense of pride and accomplishment (posting her deeds on Facebook).  She shows passion for success, but only the way her idols have gained it (though doing nothing really).  When she is finally caught, she treats it as her break out into celebrity life; playing the role of innocent victim during her trial while also taking full advantage of the “false accusations” she’s charged with.  Her mother shows no implication for punishing Nicki for her actions; instead choosing to ignore it while defending her as innocent (in fact her mother seems to take advantage of her daughter’s publicity as well).  While I won’t give it away, the final scene with Nicki sums up the movie’s theme; that we as a society enjoy the antics and stupidity of others, and as such inadvertently reward these bad behaviors with fame and fortune; prompting others who use the screen as a source of guidance to follow suit.

With tragedy and comedy, style and acting, The Bling Ring is able to make the impossible by having all these despicable characters and actions on screen, and create a film that I still found highly enjoyable.  It dives into what our reality TV and celebrities can do when kids are allowed to be influenced by them with no other responsible guidance.  The main difference however between our reality and this movie is that The Bling Ring, its cast, and creator are all self-aware of the overall joke/warning it brings to its audience.  Let’s just hope that the audience watching the film can figure that out as well.