Review of The Bling Ring (2013) by Sibusiso Y — 28 Sep 2013

Sofia Coppola's 'The Bling Ring' comes at a time when our culture's errant narcissism and naked obsession with fame and money are at an all time high, though certainly, the apex is still yet to come.

Bling Ring allows the characters to tell their story without taking the didactic approach and moralizing the actions taken by the characters. This distance creates a sort of neutralism that fails to delve into the psyche of the characters, much less, that of the culture at large.

This would've afforded the film the unique opportunity to discuss and comment on where our obsessions with celebrity lifestyles emanate from and what that means for the culture. Ultimately, the film mirrors its shallow protagonists by failing to look beneath the surface, which of course, is a devastating irony.

Or perhaps, this itself is by design - a cinematic landscape without the intrusion of the director's or our own moralizing, which might be a more potent social criticism of our time.