Directors: Sophia Coppola
Starring: Emma Watson, Leslie Mann, Taissa Varmiga, Israel Broussard, Katie Chang, Claire Julien
Running Time: 90 minutes
Certificate: 15
Extras: Making The Bling Ring, Behind the real Bling Ring, Scene of the crime with Paris Hilton, UK exclusive interview with Sofia Coppola
THE BLING RING revolves around a group of celebrity obsessed teenage girls who turn to robbing the houses of their heroes. It is based upon the Vanity Fair exposé article “The Suspects Wore Louboutins,” and revolves around true events.
THE BLING RING is directed, written and produced by Sofia Coppola, a filmmaker that has seen many of her films greeted with mixed responses from critics and movie-goers alike. Here she assembles an very young cast in a film that is probably her most mainstream and accessible to date. Emma Watson and Taissa Varmiga (Vera’s sister) lead newcomers Israel Broussard, Katie Chang and Claire Julien as the group of gossip-hungry teens that live for fashion, fame and celebrity culture. Leslie Mann is thrown in for good measure as the mother of Watson’s Nicki, a home-tutor who is almost as obsessed and self appreciating as the team of youngsters. Both actresses are very good here, and deliver believable performances in a genre that they are not usually used too. Watson is obviously eager to break away from her Hermoine past as much as she can, and she’s easily the best part of the film. Her Californian accent is spot on too.
The rest of the cast are also very good, particularly Chang and the only male member of the group Broussard, who bears a striking resemblance to young One Directioner Harry Styles, or maybe that’s just my celebrity fixations kicking in.
The problem that I had with this movie is the same that I’ve had with most of Coppola’s output, in that the plot and scenes within are so long and drawn out, it’s almost painful. There’s scene after scene that are more style over substance, long enough to be overlong, overlong to be pretentious and just plain self-obsessed. Just like the subject matter of the film itself.
Superficial, materialistic, vain, amoral. Everything its probably supposed to be.
THE BLING RING is released on DVD and Blu-Ray in the UK on Monday 28th October, 2013.
