The Bling Ring (dir. Sofia Coppola, 2013) – Quick, flashy, blingy, the counterpoint to Somewhere (in terms of editing). Sofia is still very interested in celebrity culture and young women/girls. They’re all somewhat about this: The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette, and these last two. But let’s be careful of making this too autobiographical. Although this is the director who inserted Converse high-tops into Marie Antoinette, the constant barrage of selfies in this film isn’t about Sofia, at least not directly. Or anyway, this is self-iconography of a different generation. Surfaces are important here, whether of the “bling” stuff they steal, the personae the characters create, the profile pics on their Facebook pages, or the characters’ own lack of depth. Some critic disparaged the film for not examining internal motivations, not humanizing these kids. The phenomenon that they represent, however, demands an examination of surfaces before depths.
