Writer-director Sofia Coppola's new feature, The Bling Ring, begins as a standard coming-of-age tale: Hollywood Hills teen Marc (Israel Broussard) has landed uncomfortably at a new school, where he is surrounded by the gorgeous, habitually misbehaved offspring of wealthy (but not elite) Angelinos. Marc quickly falls in with lively and ruthlessly materialistic Rebecca (Katie Chang), who instructs him the finer art of lifting purses from unlocked luxury cars. From there the pair graduate to burglarizing the homes of out-of-town acquaintances, and then to the Big Score: the Louis Vuitton-laden domiciles of Hollywood celebrities. Naturally, Rebecca's equally fashion-obsessed friends Nicki (Emma Watson), Sam (Taissa Farmiga), and Chloe (Claire Julien) want in on this scheme, and just as naturally the group's larcenous spree quickly spirals out of control. (The conspirators' eventual downfall lies partly in their inclination for posting photos of their spoils on Facebook.)
Loosely adapted from Nancy Jo Sales' Vanity Fair article on a real-world ring of teen burglars, Coppola's film nimbly straddles the gap between shameless lifestyle porn and disdain at the brokenness of a society that would lionize such disgusting excess. There are no likable characters—even ostensible protagonist Marc is, at best, callow and self-aggrandizing—which might have been a problem if the film had ambitions beyond oohing over spectacular wealth and acidly mocking the twisted values that such wealth engenders. Although The Bling Ring is the filmmaker's most straightforward and emotionally indifferent feature to date, Coppola conveys an apposite sense of gaping horror at her characters without sliding into smugness or contemptuousness. That alone is a nifty storytelling feat, and it renders The Bling Ring as a glossy, enticing, and vaguely nauseating portrait of Today's America.
