The second and most recent of Sofia Coppola's films I've watched, The Bling Ring, presents the story of five Hollywood Hills teenagers who find thrill, excitement and belonging in stealing from the houses of big-name celebrities. These continuous burglaries brand the group with the film's title: The Bling Ring. Based off real events, Coppola reconstructs the tale with artistic flair, showing rather than telling.
Having no prior expectations or knowledge of this controversial event, I walked into The Bling Ring with intrigue and curiosity. However, after finishing the movie with an unease in my stomach and a bad taste in my mouth, I couldn't stop thinking of this film's subtle and impacting suggestions of gratuitous materialism and idolised infatuation. Instead of receiving a detailed documentary on the happenings of these Hollywood burglaries, Coppola instead presented a very ambiguous but nuanced depiction of this group of teenagers and the society they live in.
I found myself subsequently thinking about this film from a Modernist perspective and realising that despite the overt and at times suffocating 21st century edge to its direction, The Bling Ring highlights a mirroring of Early American modernity. From its fast-paced and almost Imagist portrayal to the darker moments of materialism and falsity, I felt like the film could be viewed as a social commentary on our growing technological fascination and the inevitable corruption that follows. A great example is the film's frequent inclusions of various red-carpet photos and videos of celebrities which flicker across the screen in quick succession. The small images are blown up to fit the big screen, pixelated and distorted as a result. Is this our lifestyle as "millenials"? An obsession with looking and watching other people through screens and lenses of other people's cameras? If so, it makes it possible for ordinary people to live vicariously through the lives of the rich and famous, in a candid and perverse way.
