Review of The Bling Ring (2013) by Nick O — 10 Dec 2013

Oh, I get it: it's the high-minded "Spring Breakers". Leave it to Sofia Coppola to bum out the trashy fun of seeing good girls go bad. Only don't make the mistake of checking your brain at the door. "The Bling Ring", Coppola's fifth feature as writer-director and not one to miss, won't unfortunately be able to avoid comparisons to Harmony Korine's vibrant, art house-forsaken maybe classic. And, I admit, it isn't as immediately entertaining as "Breakers" is, either.

Fret not. "The Bling Ring" may sound like too inspired a tale on the surface (see: "Pain & Gain"), but rather than rest on its in-the-moment laurels Coppola views the artifice and danger of celebrity culture as something that outlives even the film's most extreme examples. From her lovely debut "The Virgin Suicides" to 2010's "Somewhere" Coppola's demonstrated again and again her skill at plunging the gaps between words with depth and care. She's never made a movie that doesn't feel special, to us and to her, and in safe hands.

Emma Watson, Taissa Farmiga and Leslie Mann are all insatiable highlights, as people either corrupt by crude ideals or just wanting to play house at night when the spotlight's off their idols. But as "The Bling Ring" shows fame and flashing lights never stop when you want to live on the shoulders of giants. It takes work to look this good. (83/100).