The Bling Ring

R

Released Jun 14, 2013

1 hr. 30 min.

Crime

Drama

Comedy

List

60%

209 Reviews

Tomatometer

33%

25,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

A teenager (Israel Broussard) and his gang of fame-obsessed youths (Katie Chang, Taissa Farmiga) use the Internet to track the whereabouts of celebrities, then rob their homes.

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Critics Consensus

While it's certainly timely and beautifully filmed, The Bling Ring suffers from director Sofia Coppola's failure to delve beneath the surface of its shallow protagonists' real-life crimes.

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Jeff M

Sofia Coppola movies are a rather acquired taste, as her minimalist approach often leaves movie-goers bored or underwhelmed. But she is probably one of my top five favorite directors working today, and while this doesn't reach the heights of her masterpiece LOST IN TRANSLATION, this is still a fantastic movie and probably one of the best representations of the 21st century obsession with fame that I've seen. The young cast does a rather remarkable job considering that this could have easily gone overboard into camp and over exaggeration. It's amazing that this is based upon true events and somewhat disturbing that they were able to get away with their crimes as long as they did. Coppola's storytelling is succinct and matter-of-fact, and she somehow manages to make us care at least a little bit for these characters whose attitudes and actions are borderline despicable. You won't agree with what they did, but you may leave the movie understanding how easy it was for these young people to become addicted to the lifestyle.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/11/24

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Liliana P

A really uncomfortable movie.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/07/24

Full Review

Gavin O

Good story, decent acting, but boring.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/03/24

Full Review

F S

I personally didn't like it. I'm an action and adventure kind of guy, yes there was some action but then again it wasn't the one I'm accustomed to. I'm more of a Jason statham movies type, like transporter… that, that movie gets me going

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/26/24

Full Review

Joseph Z

Sofia Coppola's ‘The Bling Ring' sees her re-emerge with the intentional use of lighting that stylized her iconic feature length debut—The Virgin Suicides. This time she comes around with a new sort of glamor and flash, to add onto the already bold high key lighting. The film explores the real life events with a comedic level of sass to it. The group of teens are made out to be completely unforgivable from the moment they appear on screen. The only one of the bunch who leaves room for a moment of sympathy is Marc, who just happens to meet the wrong person during his first day at school (Rebecca). The friendship isn't given much detail, and consists of an extroverted girl who won't accept ‘no' as an answer, and a guy who may as well be a newborn child, mindlessly clinging to the first person to give him attention. As we progress to the heart of the story, we continue to see a lack of redeeming qualities about each of these characters. They have no second thoughts about their careless decisions, and even go on to flaunt their crimes at parties; because why make stupid choices if you don't get any attention for it? Sofia Coppola seems to have somewhat of a message and direction behind this, but her neutral standpoint on the crimes cause a lot of it to be lost in translation. None of the characters are fleshed out, we only see a short glimpse of each of their home lives. This could be a creative decision, to mirror the shallowness of the crimes, and motivations to rob, but I just didn't find it all that great. Despite the film being made in the early age of the modern internet, much of the discourse on celebrity culture is still very much around. The American dream has transitioned to a youth who just want to be as famous as the people they idolize. The bling ring in particular wants to literally steal their way into fame, and all they need to do it is a couple google searches. The ease of access the internet offers hasn't disappeared ten years later, and will probably continue to get worse before it gets better. Even David Fincher's newest film ‘The Killer' weaves in a little bit of social commentary on how scarily easy the internet makes it for a sociopath to thrive. In terms of technicality, a lot of aspects fell short for me. I can understand the appeal for the lighting, but I'm just not a fan of it. There weren't many standout shots, aside from the slow zoom long take on the glass house. I found all the acting to be incredibly bland. The line delivery from some of the actors were incredibly unconvincing. I did find Emma Watson quite good though, she stole the show in every scene she was in. She found a good balance between an annoying character and a satirical one. I also thought the way it was all edited together was very distracting. Many of the collages of celebrities disrupted the continuity of the script rather than help it. I understand the appeal towards the soundtrack, but to me many of the songs felt like they were just thrown in there. The collection of needle drops bring forth a diverse platter of classic 2000s A-list hit songs that come off as more of an afterthought, rather than a unique vision due to the lack of nuance they add to their respective scene. I imagine Edgar Wright watching this and having nightmares for weeks. Not to mention the extremely distracting editing while they're in the car and "All of the Lights" plays. All that being said, I for some reason put much of those negative thoughts in the back of my head while watching. In a way, the movie is too fun to care, and the story is just very interesting. There's something strangely fascinating about teenagers waltzing around Hollywood and stealing from some of the richest and most famous people in the U.S. The film serves as a time capsule in a way, which makes it really cool to look back on a transitional period in both the internet, and film itself. I just think this is a film that was created too early on. It's a really fascinating concept/story nonetheless. As much fun as the film was, I still think it falls in the bottom half of her filmography. I do have to respect that Sofia Coppola had some interesting things to say. She was able to take a spree of crimes and find greater meaning—an epidemic of misguided teens. "What did Lindsey say?"

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/26/24

Full Review

Emily O

I enjoyed all the silence part of the movies and I liked how the movie showed the celebrities homes that they robbed and how the police came into the suspect's houses. The movie did a good job incorporating the real life events that happened into the movie.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/26/24

Full Review

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Sofia Coppola

Director

Israel Broussard

Marc

Katie Chang

Rebecca

Taissa Farmiga

Sam

Claire Julien

Chloe

Georgia Rock

Emily

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Kerensa Cadenas

Bitch Media

Sofia Coppola is arguably one of the best filmmakers to capture the achingly annoying experience of being stuck in an arrested state (especially as a teenager).

Jan 15, 2021

Full Review

J. Hoberman

ARTINFO.com

The Bling Ring is basically the same thing over and over.

Feb 22, 2019

Full Review

Deborah Ross

The Spectator

It's taut, makes its point without hammering it home, well acted (particularly Emma Watson; I know!) and visually delicious.

Sep 5, 2018

Full Review

Danielle Solzman

Solzy at the Movies

While The Bling Ring might be attempting to say something about the culture in 2013, it's the least impressive film in Sofia Coppola's filmography.

Rated: 3/5

Dec 31, 2023

Full Review

Marshall Shaffer

Vague Visages

As the time between 2008, 2013 and 2016 grows comparatively smaller, the film will only loom larger.

Dec 6, 2023

Full Review

Jason Adams

My New Plaid Pants

Fierce, fierce, fierce

Jul 2, 2021

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Synopsis

A teenager (Israel Broussard) and his gang of fame-obsessed youths (Katie Chang, Taissa Farmiga) use the Internet to track the whereabouts of celebrities, then rob their homes.

Director: Sofia Coppola
Executive Producer: Michael Zakin, Francis Ford Coppola, Fred Roos, Paul Rassam, Emilio Diez Barroso, Darlene Caamano Loquet
Screenwriter: Sofia Coppola
Distributor: A24
Production Co: American Zoetrope, Nala Films
Rating: R (Some Sexual References|Language|Teen Drug and Alcohol Use)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 14, 2013, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 30, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $5.8M

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