The Bling Ring

The Bling Ring (2013)
Rotten Tomatoes: 60%
Director: Sofia Coppola
Screenwriter: Sofia Coppola

There is one fantastic moment midway through The Bling Ring, Sofia Coppola's film about the infamous 'Bling Ring' group of teenagers who robbed the houses of various celebrities over several months. The 5 members of the group stride down a street, dressed like the Hollywood stars they aim to embody, as if nothing can touch them, while Kanye West's song 'Power' plays, perhaps the perfect song, reflecting on the fame and wealth that these teens are obsessed by. However, the film feels underwhelming in large parts, and never really delivers upon its potential.

The film follows a group of fascinatingly amoral teens, acted superbly by a bunch of relative unknowns and Emma Watson. Watson, Katie Chang and Israel Broussard are the three main leads and each of them give a very genuine and assured performance, as everything comes slowly crashing down for the group. What is also refreshing in this film is that the camera feels cold and nonjudgmental, allowing us to come to our own decisions, while the cinematography, headed by the late Harris Savides, to whom the film is dedicated, is fantastic. Which makes it even odder that the tone of the film is so often broken by computer images and videos, that although Coppola is clearly trying to tap into the social media spirit of the age, feel out of place.

However, the film has several problems that are quite frankly too big to be ignored. The first is that despite only being an hour and a half, the film feels overlong and the second act takes up far too much of the movie. There is simply not enough stuff going on, as the teens just break into house after house, while there are also no real attempts made at any kind of character development. The film also seems slightly confused about its lead role as the focus shifts unevenly between Broussard and Watson, and as a result of Coppola's standoffish approach, it is difficult to know who we are meant to be rooting for. 

The Bling Ring has potential and some great individual moments and theme, but it lets itself down in the middle.

3/5 Stars

Before Sunrise

Before Sunrise (1995)
Empire 500 (2008): #200
Empire 301 (2014): #233
Rotten Tomatoes: 100%
Director: Richard Linklater
Screenwriters: Richard Linklater & Kim Krizan

Richard Linklater is unquestionably one of my favourite directors, and Boyhood and Dazed and Confused are two of my favourite films ever, so I was looking forward hugely to tackling his Before trilogy. In Linklater's films there are never any forced stakes, the world is never saved and nobody dies. They tend to be gentle and meandering chronicles of a certain point or period in somebody's life. They delight in and relish the slowly unfolding pace at which they take place, and there is no forced meaning or point other than simply being there. The nature of these films also reflect the kind of people Linklater portrays, the laid back, Generation X 'slacker' or drifter of an artistic bend, and yet not quite sure of what they want to do with their life. I write this having only seen Before Sunrise which I liked, and Before Sunset, which I loved, trying to work out why Before Sunrise didn't quite capture me, in the same way that his other films have.

The premise of Before Sunrise is basic and timeless: two strangers meet and bond overnight in a strange city. Despite this, it is clearly not a conventional film, and it is arguably little more than an extended conversation, although that doesn't detract from it at all. Pretty much the only two characters, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy) both have their own distinct and unique personalities and the developing romance between them has several touching moments, such as listening to a song in a record shop, each of them stealing glances at each other in turn but turning away quickly, not wanting to be caught. It is a touching film with a lovely ambiguous ending, but for me, it became just a bit too boring, for want of a better word by the end. I made the mistake of watching this film with my laptop and several times my desire to browse the Internet and google something overcame my desire to watch the film. I think the problem with this film, at least in my mind is that there is quite frankly nothing besides the slightly repetitive feeling musings of Jesse and Céline. The low stakes involved aren't necessarily a problem, as Linklater himself showed in Dazed and Confused and Boyhood, but in place of high stakes I feel there needs to be something to interest the watcher, to keep him fixated and for him or her to focus upon. In Dazed and Confused for instance there are a large number of enjoyably different characters in a large number of enjoyably different situations, while in Boyhood there is simply the pure unadulterated pleasure of watching Ellar Coltrane slowly develop from a boy to a man.

In Before Sunrise however, I don't feel there is enough to maintain our interest for the whole film. It serves as an enjoyable introduction to Before Sunset which I found more easily watchable and compelling due to our preexisting knowledge of Jesse and Céline and curiosity of who they have turned into nine years down the line, a more tight and contained time frame, more tension between the two and slightly higher stakes, which I will hopefully go into more detail on in another post soon.

3/5 Stars