The Superficial: The Bling Ring Reviewed

One of my favourite guilty pleasures is to sit down with a big block of chocolate and a juicy gossip magazine. It is fun to peek into the world of the rich and famous, to catch up on who is dating who, the latest teen singing sensation in a fast lane to rehab (cough, Miley Cyrus, cough). I particularly enjoy admiring their designer outfits and how they manage to look so perfect all the time. However, for the four Los Angeles teenagers in Sofia Coppola’s latest film The Bling Ring, the life of celebrity and high-end luxury is more than a passing interest – it is an obsession.

When Marc (Israel Brussard) begins at a new high school, he is shunned by everybody except the pretty and confident Rebecca (Katie Chang).  Marc is pleased when they discover a mutual interest in fashion, and Rebecca is excited to find that Marc’s father is ‘in the biz’ as a film distributor. What begins as a typical teenage friendship made up of parties, trips to the beach and smoking weed, quickly becomes something more serious when they embark on a series of burglaries, accompanied by ditzy Nicki (Emma Watson), her adopted sister Sam (Taissa Famiga) and fellow party girl Chloe (Claire Julien).  They don’t just rob any old homes, though.

The Bling Ring is based on the real life events described in the Vanity Fair article, ‘The Suspects Wore Louboutins’. The article details the crime spree that saw the teens steal US$3 million worth of jewellery and designer clothing from the mansions of celebrities they admired, including Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom and Lindsay Lohan during 2008 and 2009.  The ‘Bling Ring’, as they became known, used the internet to research the addresses of their favourite celebrities and targeted them on nights they’d be away filming or attending events. They got in using keys hidden under doormats or via unlocked doors. Who knew it would be so easy?

Co-written by the article’s author Nancy Jo Sales, the film is relatively close to the events as described. Taking the perspective of the teens involved, it follows them as they ransack one celebrity home after another. However, there wasn’t much else to it, and without a fuller storyline it struggled to maintain my interest.

For a film, the story needed to be more substantial. Although the opportunity to develop the characters presents itself, this is where the film falls flat. We really know nothing about them, apart from Nicki and Sam bring products of their mother's (Leslie Mann) misguided home schooling curriculum based on The Secret, that Rebecca comes from a broken home, and that Marc has anxiety issues garnered via a passing remark. Also not revealed are their motives for partaking in this series of audacious crimes.

What the film does say about these characters is that they reflect a generation that is narcissistic, superficial and obsessed with fame. In the world of The Bling Ring, having a ‘DUI’ (driving under the influence) conviction like Lindsay Lohan is something to be celebrated, and life goals include owning a collection of Louboutin shoes, appearing on TMZ or having your own reality TV show. On the one hand, the film’s visual style is very reflective of this and looks like a television advert or gossip magazine, interspersed with Facebook profiles and pics, white at other times it has a very dreamy feel more akin to Coppola’s Lost In Translation.

What I most enjoyed about the film was Emma Watson’s performance as Nicki, who is perhaps the most superficial and fame obsessed of the bunch. My favourite line in the whole film, sadly based on an actual quote by one of the real-life Bling Ring members, is delivered by Watson, surrounded by paparazzi as she enters the courthouse to face trial:

“I’m a firm believer in Karma and I think this situation was attracted into my life because it was supposed to be a huge learning lesson for me to grow and expand as a spiritual human being...God didn’t give me these talents and looks to just sit around being a model or being famous. I want to lead a huge charity organization. I want to lead a country, for all I know.”

God help us all.

The Bling Ring is out on DVD and Blu-Ray through Roadshow.

-Eliza Murphy

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Nothing Here is Vegetarian: Hannibal Season One

Before we begin, you must all be warned, nothing here is vegetarian…

Bryan Fuller is no stranger to death. His series Dead Like Me detailed the after-life and times of grim reapers in Seattle. The visually incredible Pushing Daisies presents almost as a fairy tale, the story a pie-maker with the ability to revive the dead. Heck, he has even called his production company Living Dead Guy! So who better to execute a portrayal of the pre-Silence of the Lambs, pre-Red Dragon Hannibal Lecter?

Immortalised by Anthony Hopkins in the 1991 thriller Silence of the Lambs, reviving such an iconic figure comes with the huge expectation and the very real risk of failing to measure up. Fortunately, Fuller and his team manage to pull it off. For me, this reimagining is far more sinister, aided by the restrained and controlled portrayal of Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, but then this is a depiction of the character at a different stage in the storyline.

Hannibal manages to sustain a sense of distance between the detailed 'design' of the murders and Lecter's involvement. The audience never directly sees him performing these horrific deeds, but he seems to know too much. His implied participation enough.

In this respect there is a conflict between the known and the unknown for the observer of this long-form Lecter story. I know Lecter is a psychopath. I know he is a cannibal. However, the characters with whom he interacts, for the most part, do not. I watch him feed them gourmet meals featuring exotic cuts of meat. I listen to him discuss the details of horrific murders while displaying no emotional response. I know things that make this story ten times worse than the characters within it, creating a tension that compels me to watch on despite knowing it will all, at some point, go very wrong.

He is inherently evil, or at least he comes across that way. His calmness and callousness are juxtaposed brilliantly with the inner and outer torment of Will Graham, played by Brit Hugh Dancy. While Graham is in constant battle with his demons, Lecter has long since accepted them, even harnessed them. Graham becomes his personal play thing, whose life he near destroys for his own curiosity. However, Lecter does slowly reveal elements of his true self, albeit in a manner that is both calculated and deliberate, and which goes unobserved by most around him.

The imagery of Hannibal is, at times, both horrific and beautiful. As much as I want to look away, the aesthetic portrayal of these graphic and violent crimes is simultaneously compelling and stomach churning. The players that support the Lecter/Graham slow waltz are convincing, in particular Laurence Fishburne as Special Agent Jack Crawford, who is blissfully ignorant of the psychopathic tendencies of the man with whom he occasionally shares a meal.
 
Apparently Fuller has plans for seven series of Hannibal culminating with the events of the Thomas Harris novels only after the first four are completed. With relatively low ratings, it’s a positive that the show has been re-commissioned for a second season. Hopefully networks are beginning to realise that there are other mechanisms for capitalising on television series, such as downloadable content or DVD sales. But that’s another story…

Hannibal is not for the faint-hearted, or more accurately, faint-stomached, but the first season is out now on DVD and Blu-ray.

-Stevie O'C

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Adventure Time: Jake vs Me-Mow

Warning: The following review contains spoilers.
 

If you haven’t seen it, Adventure Time is an animated series about a boy named Finn and a magic dog named Jake. As a baby Finn was found in the forest by Jake’s parents who raised them together. Now Finn is 12 and Jake is 28 in magical dog years, and they are best bros.

 

So far, there are five series and each episode is an adventure Finn and Jake have been on – going through dungeons, fighting evil trolls and of course, avoiding the Ice King (because no one likes the Ice King).

 

I have two favourite episodes from this DVD. But the best one is also the episode that the DVD is named after, Jake vs Me-Mow. In this episode Finn and Jake are eating pies with Wild Berry Princess who is about to be assassinated by Me-Mow, the trainee assassin. Jake unknowingly eats the pie that Me-Mow is hiding in, which was meant for Wild Berry Princess. Me-Mow has poison that could kill Jake in one full injection.

Me-Mow blackmails Jake into trying to assassinate the Princess himself. Jake tries to fake assassinating Wild Berry Princess, but that doesn’t fool Me-Mow. So Me-Mow injects poison into Jake’s blood stream. Jake is in pain and Finn doesn’t know what is going on because Jake can’t tell him or he’ll DIE!

Me-Mow comes tumbling out and Finn figures it all out. Finn and Me-Mow go head-to-head “GIVE ME THE ANTIDOTE” screams Finn. “YOU MEAN THIS” said Me-Mow as she smashes it into a tree. Jake is too sick to go to the tree. “That poison is enough to kill a dog 50 time your size” said Me-Mow. Jake thought for a moment – I’m a magic dog, I can grow to 51 times my size, whooooop, Jake is cured.

This episode was my favourite because I like cats and it was really funny to see a tiny, cute assassin cat trying to kill the Wild Berry Princess and Jake.

There are 16 episodes on the Adventure Time: Jake vs Me-Mow DVD, which I recommend to anyone who likes crazy and random cartoons.

Adventure Time: Jake vs Me-Mow is available through Madman Entertainment.

- Matthew Fargher

(Matthew is 11)

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