The Reaction To Last Night’s Cannes Premiere Of The Bling Ring Is Decidedly Mixed
This just makes us wanna see it even more.
Sofia Coppola’s eagerly-anticipated teen-jerk movie, The Bling Ring — based on reporter Nancy Jo Sales‘ great article for Vanity Fair, about a group of Californian teenagers with an unhealthy lust for Hollywood celebrities — premiered at the Cannes Film Festival only hours ago. The cast and crew looked quite dapper on the red carpet.
Power stances and air kisses.
Although some amusing minor details (spoilers?) have come in following the screening — like, there’s a slo-mo thievery montage set to Kanye’s ‘Power’, the closing credits are scored by Frank Ocean’s ridiculously-appropriate ‘Super Rich Kids’, and Leslie Mann apparently steals a bunch of scenes as the kids’ loco mum, spouting wacko New Age theories and show ‘n’ tell lessons on why Angelina Jolie is a genuine role model — the critical reaction so far has been decidedly mixed. Let’s take a look at the most usefully pretentious opinions to come in so far, shall we?
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1. Instant translation: “Kinda vacuous.”
“American cinema seems preoccupied with the emptiness of excess, at least in the first half of 2013. Baz Luhrmann luxuriates in the meaningless wealth of The Great Gatsby, while Harmony Korine put his own twisted spin on the dark soul of the American dream in Spring Breakers. And now comes Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring, another look at the at-any-cost pursuit of celebrity and the worship of brand names, but it doesn’t bring anything new to a conversation that seems to have run out of things to say.” – Kevin Jagernauth; IndieWire
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2. Instant translation: “Hmm, strangely compassionate.”
“There is something in [Coppola’s] unjudging approach that is unexpectedly appropriate – and effective. It lets her get up close and personal to the story and characters, which conventional irony (from a director like Larry Clark or a writer like Bret Easton Ellis) wouldn’t get near… The Bling Ring is a very distant, minor cousin to Robert Bresson’s Pickpocket or Christopher Nolan’s Following. The final notes of irony and repudiation may be laboured and obvious, but this is an intriguingly intuitive and atmospheric movie.” – Peter Bradshaw; The Guardian
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3. Instant translation: “Sigh, kids these days.”
“When future generations want to understand how we lived at the dawn of the plugged-in, privacy-free, Paris Hilton-ized 21st century, there will likely be few films more instructive than The Bling Ring. A spiritual sequel of sorts to The Social Network, Sofia Coppola’s fact-based tale of the 2008-09 crime spree by a gang of enterprising SoCal teens targeting the homes of high-profile celebrities reps a return to more pop, accessible filmmaking for the Lost in Translation auteur following the austere Somewhere (which earned only $1.7 million domestically)… Where Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette and Somewhere were all studies of desiccated privilege as seen from the inside looking out, The Bling Ring inverts the perspective, focusing on the young barbarians at the gate, drawn to glitter and glitz like Nathanael West’s locusts to the flame.” – Scott Foundas; Variety
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4. Instant translation: “I love Hermione.”
“Speaking Valleyese with impeccable banality, the ensemble cast delivers comprehensive portraits of superficiality and moral cluelessness. It’s fun to see Watson departing so decisively from her smartypants Hermione identity, while [Katie] Chang marks herself as someone to watch.” – Todd McCarthy; The Hollywood Reporter
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5. Instant translation: “Goddamn, that was boring.”
“There’s nothing revelatory about the idea that young people are indoctrinated into celebrity worship and designer-label envy from an early age, so The Bling Ring amounts to little more than a group portrait of exceedingly shallow teens who rifled through the drawers of some equally shallow adults who’ve appeared on television. To be blunt, who cares? Coppola might perhaps have stirred some interest via sensuous camerawork, but the dreamy quality of her previous work gives way here to such hackneyed visual ideas as teens walking abreast in slo-mo to Kanye West’s ‘Power’. I suppose one could argue that these interludes represent the hackneyed dreams of the film’s subjects, but that’s like arguing that a movie’s tedium signifies the real-life tedium of some circumstance. At a certain point, thematic relevance no longer matters. You’re just plain bored.” – Mike D’Angelo; The AV Club
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So, interesting opinions. We’ll get to make-up our own minds when The Bling Ring is released locally on July 25. In the meantime, though, you can just watch the trailer for the 342156378364th time.