The first trailer for Sofia Coppola’s “The Bling Ring” has been released. The film follows the true life story of a bunch of California teens that went on a celebrity burglary spree that netted more than $3 million in cash and belongings stolen from stars such as Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and Orlando Bloom. The brief teaser, which is scored to Sleigh Bell’s “Crown on the Ground”, is honestly is pretty rough - the time code is still on the footage - but it does look interesting.
It appears that Coppola is experimenting with a new style (some of the footage has a distinctly found footage look) for her go to subject matter (affluent young people have problems). Coppola’s 1999 debut was an opaque and fascinating film, 2003’s “Lost in Translation” was triumph of interiority and features the best ever performance from Scarlett Johansson but her 2006 follow-up “Marie Antoinette” was a gorgeously photographed disappointment with a G.O.A.T. trailer. Her 2010 film “Somewhere” was structurally similar to “Lost in Translation” but had too little heart, too little energy, and too much Stephan Dorff.
“The Bling Ring” certainly looks livelier than her last film and a cast led by Emma Watson has a lot of potential but I can’t help but feeling that while Coppola’s film will be enjoyable, it might end up being the “Argo” to Harmony Korine’s “Zero Dark Thirty” with his similarly themed “Spring Breakers” beating hers to theaters by a month. While Coppola’s is all about intellectually appealing icy distant, Korine’s all about hot boxing the movie until the audience gives in to the messy excess which is plainly a better approach for material like this. Still, it’s good news for cinema as a whole that two female led sex and drug fueled mayhem movies coming out in the same year.
“The Bling Ring” will be in Cleveland area theaters on June 14, 2013.
Mario McKellop has written about film on Examiner for the last three years and can be reached directly at mmckellop@hotmail.com
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