MS Speaks

OTHER => MOVIES, TV => Topic started by: agate on January 02, 2014, 07:35:25 pm

Title: THE BLING RING (2013)
Post by: agate on January 02, 2014, 07:35:25 pm
Based–perhaps loosely–on a real story, The Bling Ring presents a group of Southern California teenagers who aren’t from underprivileged backgrounds but who get their jollies from breaking into the houses of local celebrities (Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, and others) to steal whatever appeals to them–designer clothes and shoes, Rolex watches, jewelry, rolls of bills. They make little effort at concealing their activity from their friends and in fact are so proud of it that they brag about it.

They’re astonished and delighted that the celebrities’ houses are so accessible. All they have to do is use the Internet to  track the plans of whatever celebrity they are targeting. With knowledge of when a person will be away, they feel confident that they can break in.

It seems to me that they must have been taking a big risk here as many people have house-sitters, or an occasional neighbor dropping by to look in on a place in their absence–as well as elaborate surveillance systems.

It was the surveillance systems that enabled them to be caught, but surprisingly they got away with quite a few of these burglaries.

The teenagers seem to be enrolled in a correctional high school, but a couple of the girls are being home-schooled by one of the moms, who is indoctrinating them in the principles of “The Promise.” There isn’t much discipline in these kids’ lives, and through it all one has to ask if their parents are on another planet somewhere. The kids come and go, apparently at all hours, with free access to drugs–and just about anything else they want.

This movie has some hilarious moments but underlying it is a very sad situation, a world where large segments of the society have been trained to think in terms of acquiring brighter and shinier new things at all times and at any cost.

A scene where one of the girls starts playing around with a gun is a grim reminder that people who let their kids run amok often pay a very  high price.

The song being played as the credits roll is entirely too preachy  and almost ruins the movie, in my opinion. And throughout the story I found it difficult to care about any of the characters. They are surrounded by heaps of glittering tchotchkes most of the time, and we never really get to know any of them except very superficially.