The Cannes Review Report rounds up each day’s notable premieres, along with a sampling of their reviews and tweets from the south of France. Here’s the reaction to “The Bling Ring,” director Sofia Coppola’s true crime film about the teenagers who perpetrated a notorious series of robberies in Southern California.
“The Bling Ring“
Category: Un Certain Regard
Director: Sofia Coppola
Starring: Emma Watson, Kirsten Dunst, Leslie Mann
Synopsis: “In the fame-obsessed world of Los Angeles, a group of teenagers take us on a thrilling and disturbing crime-spree in the Hollywood hills. Based on true events, the group, who were fixated on the glamorous life, tracked their celebrity targets online, and stole more than 3 million in luxury goods from their homes. Their victims included Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom, and Rachel Bilson, and the gang became known in the media as ‘The Bling Ring.'”
Reviews:
“An impressively mannered and vividly evocative delve into the glossily vacuous side of fame-obsessed Los Angeles.”
Kaleem Aftab, The Independent:
“Coppola’s regular cinematographer Harris Savides (who died shortly after principal photography completed) shoots Hilton’s house like it’s an episode of MTV’s ‘Cribs.'”
“An interesting surprise.”
“Easily Coppola’s funniest film.”
“Coppola’s uproarious and bitingly timely film feels every inch a necessary artwork.”
“Though it lacks the name cast and self-consciously outre style of another recent girls-gone-wild opus, ‘Spring Breakers,’ this lively and fascinating pic should score well with its target hipster demo.”
“The girls make ‘Spring Breakers” minxes seem well adjusted.”
David Jenkins, Little White Lies:
“Coppola’s greatest coup here is making it look as if both robbers and victims are guilty of the same lack of control and discrimination.”
“What’s gratifyingly fresh about the film is Coppola’s refusal to sentimentalize the kids’ crimes as a form of starry-eyed celebrity desire.”
Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter:
“This is a too-cool-for-school portrait of spoiled kids achieving dubious but welcome fame for robbing the homes of young Hollywood celebrities. As such, it will attain a certain stature itself as a cultural artifact but without stirring significant interest artistically or commercially.”
Matt Mueller, Thompson on Hollywood:
“Not a failure by any stretch, but Coppola should have been in her wheelhouse with this one so it’s a shame not to see her firing on more cylinders.”
Tweets:
Alex Billington, First Showing:
“The Bling Ring – Coppola’s simplistic materialistic excess PSA. Hollow characters, amateur acting, useless story. Wasted potential. #cannes”
“The Bling Ring (Coppola): 32. Two words: Who cares?”
“The Bling Ring: such an esp. damning tale of Generation TMZ as-is that Sofia Coppola hardly has to do much with it, and hardly does #Cannes”
“Very inspired by Sofia Coppola’s Bling Ring at Cannes. (Typing this on Leo DiCaprio’s laptop! OMG.)”
“BLING RING: Kinda silly, but also Coppola’s funniest movie and ironically the last ostentatious of them. #cannes2013”
“The Bling Ring: Emma Watson is a riot, Israel Broussard’s a find, and the damning of celeb culture is pointed. #Cannes2013”
Jonathan Romney, The Independent:
“THE BLING RING: shiny and hollow as the name suggests. #cannes2013″
“THE BLING RING(D+) Good satire doesn’t need character’s explaining it in talking heads. Fun nonetheless but pretty thin & stylistically flat”
“Emma Watson doesn’t play the ring leader in The Bling Ring but she’s the clear standout among the cast with the most to do. #cannes2013”
“BLING RING – what was evidently a non-event of a “news” story becomes a non-event of a movie. S.Coppola’s still taken seriously by anyone?”
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