MOVIES REVIEWS

The Bling Ring Movie Review

ByChiara Spagnoli Gabardi

Jun 11, 2013

Title: The Bling Ring

Director: Sofia Coppola

Starring: Emma Watson, Taissa Farmiga, Leslie Mann, Israel Broussard, Katie Chang, Georgia Rock.

Sofia Coppola’s latest crime drama goes “Bling-Bling.” The Vanity Fair article by Nancy Jo Sales, ‘The Suspects Wore Louboutins,’ inspired the movie that opened the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes 2013.

Rebecca is the ringleader of a group of fame-obsessed teenagers, who use the Internet to track celebrities’ whereabouts in order to rob their homes. Marc, Nicki, Sam and Chloe, and Rebecca form the so called “Bling Ring” as they rob the homes of Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Megan Fox, Rachel Bilson, Audrina Patridge, Orlando Bloom and Miranda Kerr.

‘The Bling Ring’ extends a reflection, that Sofia Coppola had begun with the movie ‘Somewhere,’ on the lives of people muffled in wealth. This time the cocoon-like environment is set in Los Angeles’ high schools. A great funky soundtrack accompanies the misadventures of the spoilt brats who entertain themselves with posh burglaries, to fight boredom. The British proper and prim Emma Watson is very amusing as she rocks the bad girl image, with her performance of the stereotypical American ditz. Just as brilliant is the rest of the young cast, composed by Taissa Farmiga, Leslie Mann, Israel Broussard, Katie Chang and Georgia Rock.

Some atmospheres recall ‘Spring Breakers,’ and enhance with great humour the fast-paced caper about vapid youth obsessed with wealth and notoriety. The breezy satire on society’s obsession with celebrity culture, and the lengths some people will go to secure a fleeting moment in the limelight, will take you on a remarkably perturbing journey.

Technical: A

Acting: B+

Story: B+

Overall: A-

Written by: Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi

The Bling Ring Movie

By Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi

Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi, is a film critic, culture and foreign affairs reporter, screenwriter, film-maker and visual artist. She studied in a British school in Milan, graduated in Political Sciences, got her Masters in screenwriting and film production and studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York and Los Angeles. Chiara’s “Material Puns” use wordplay to weld the title of the painting with the materials placed on canvas, through an ironic reinterpretation of Pop-Art, Dadaism and Ready Made. She exhibited her artwork in Milan, Rome, Venice, London, Oxford, Paris and Manhattan. Chiara works as a reporter for online, print, radio and television and also as a film festival PR/publicist. As a bi-lingual journalist (English and Italian), who is also fluent in French and Spanish, she is a member of the Foreign Press Association in New York, the Women Film Critics Circle in New York, the Italian Association of Journalists in Milan and the Federation of Film Critics of Europe and the Mediterranean. Chiara is also a Professor of Phenomenology of Contemporary Arts at IED University in Milan.

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