Rebecca is a teenager living in Los Angeles who has a passion for shiny things and an obsession with skin deep celebrity fame. Her middle class parents have separated and seem to exert little or no influence over this spoilt young girl who believes that she is entitled to better possessions/life even if they are not hers for the taking. From stealing purses and wallets from unlocked cars with her new friend Marc that she just met at Indian Plains the High School that takes all the of society’s misfit kids, she is soon emboldened to start burglarising houses of ‘stars’ that the celeb-watching websites have announced are out of town. For Rebecca and Marc, and the other teenagers that they cajole to join them for subsequent robberies, its not just about ransacking the places but carefully selecting treasured pieces of the star’s wardrobes that they want to have/wear. As well as believing that are entitled to these expensive clothes and trinkets, the fact that belong to some B or C List Star that they idolise is their main incentive. Discovering a stash of money is simply a bonus.
This develops into theft on a grand scale as their hauls get bigger by this group of all white rather privileged teenagers who are not committing these crimes to feed their families, or a drug habit, but simply to pamper to their egos. Encouraged by the avalanche of media coverage on the excesses of anybody who has had ‘five minutes of fame’ that incessantly preach avarice and greed as being acceptable traits these days, which does not in anyway justify their lack of integrity, but somehow makes the whole thing sadly unsurprising.
This is filmmaker Sofia Coppola’s fifth feature and though she carefully ensures that she doesn’t take sides over the teenagers activities, she does however seem to take it far too seriously for my comfort. The best part of the movie is definitely towards the end when the kids are caught and and charged with the crimes, and their rather pompous statements about how the whole experiences will help them achieve goals of being world leaders etc with all the same sincerity of a Miss World candidate, are gloriously funny.
The plot somewhat annoyingly lacked clarity at times, and I am still confused as to why the fact that the sole boy Marc was so obviously gay, yet it was never referred too at all. However, credit where it is due …. and it was beautifully photographed by the late Harris Savides, and the fact the temple of bad taste that some of it was shot in, was in fact Paris Hilton’s home, gave it some authenticity. And a great young cast … Katie Chang as Rebecca, Israel Broussard as Marc and a scene stealing un-recognisable Emma Watson (‘Hermoine Granger from Harry Potter’) as the mouthy Nicki.
Mildly amusing, morally annoying. I wouldnt rush out to see this one.
★★★★★★
