Based on Nancy Jo Sales' article for "Vanity Fair" about the real-life exploits of a group of casually larcenous high-schoolers in LA, "The Bling Ring" is Sophia Coppola's portrait of joyfully vacuous youth growing up in a place so lavishly rich there are no needs or limits or boundaries, just things you really want and can grab.
Young actors Katie Chang, as Rebecca, and Israel Broussard, as Marc, do a great job of giving depth and feeling to the materialistic and celebrity-obsessed ring-leader and the new-kid-led-astray respectively. Rebecca introduces Marc to the joys of going anywhere and taking anything you want as casually as one friend introducing another to a cool new hobby. But it's Emma Watson who really steals the show as Nicki, a self-obsessed and self-consciously sexy young woman, who is the perfect embodiment of the vapidly hedonistic LA culture that's at the heart of the movie. Nicki knows how to enjoy the material goods while spouting the New-Agey platitudes about "karma" and "life-lessons," but as becomes increasingly clear, her real interest is in attention which she feeds on with a thinly-veiled narcissistic glee.
No comments:
Post a Comment