250 Words or Less: The Bling Ring (2013)

Befitting its style and attitude, there's an in-joke in The Bling Ring before the opening credits are even over. As the titles roll, the camera pans over a table of tacky, gilded accessories, and Sofia Coppola's credit comes just as a necklace that says "Rich Bitch" is in the center of the screen—a graphical placement that essentially reads, from left to right, "written and directed by rich bitch Sofia Coppola." It's an acknowledgement that Coppola, a lifelong Hollywood insider, is very much a part of the very system she's about to satirize, and this nod to insiderism, especially for a story about outsiders squeezing through the back door, works very much to the film's advantage.  Because while a film like The Social Network can't shake off Aaron Sorkin's "those damn kids" attitude towards the age of digital media, The Bling Ring has sympathy for its lost young people who gaze longingly at fame and access.  That's not to say the film approves of their actions—stories with morals are so old-fashioned—but it understands where they get it from, giving the film an approach where huge photos on nightclub walls and songs playing on the radio rise above props and coloration to become as significant as any "real" person on screen. The chief drawback is that the female ring-members are treated more as fashion icons and butts-of-jokes (miniature Paris Hiltons of their own?) than as psychological human beings, which is at first a potent statement, but becomes more and more of a liability as the story ends on the most obvious note in the whole film.

4 out of 5 stars.

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The Bling Ring is now in theaters, having crossed over from limited release to multiplexes.