In brief... some critics had issues with The Bling Ring, like that was Sofia Coppola going in a more shallow stylistically/character-based way about that material. If anything, she may have just been going back to her roots that were already on display in Lick the Star. When a Clique is formed, you better watch out, boys and girls! In this case, there's a "plot" that these girls get from, of all things, Flowers in the Attic (who hasn't), and they're going to poison a boy (or boys) at school. Because... Kill the Rats or some metaphor for Destruction due to privileged boredom.
This is all delivered in a very flat and affected style by these young performers. It's not something I find all that satisfying on a character level, because Coppola is cutting so quickly from one girl to the next that there's no time to develop anyone. It's like a lot of cut-out sketches of teenage girl ennui, and maybe she thought if things were light in the script direction and editing could take center stage to keep things moving along (and god I wish there was more time with Bogdanovich for the principal - guess she got a favor). And there's a slow-motion shot of the girl Chloe as she walks into school that's cool.
Ultimately though, this attention to how rotten a group gets as soon as they congregate and conspire (and then fall on their proverbial faces) is not that far removed from Bling Ring (or to an extent Virgin Suicides). On one hand Coppola would get far richer performances with a more assured grasp of tone and emotion tthere. On the other, as a short burst of inspired teenage s***head shenanigans shot in 16mm black and white as a quasi Student Effort with the backing of Father Francis... not bad.
This is all delivered in a very flat and affected style by these young performers. It's not something I find all that satisfying on a character level, because Coppola is cutting so quickly from one girl to the next that there's no time to develop anyone. It's like a lot of cut-out sketches of teenage girl ennui, and maybe she thought if things were light in the script direction and editing could take center stage to keep things moving along (and god I wish there was more time with Bogdanovich for the principal - guess she got a favor). And there's a slow-motion shot of the girl Chloe as she walks into school that's cool.
Ultimately though, this attention to how rotten a group gets as soon as they congregate and conspire (and then fall on their proverbial faces) is not that far removed from Bling Ring (or to an extent Virgin Suicides). On one hand Coppola would get far richer performances with a more assured grasp of tone and emotion tthere. On the other, as a short burst of inspired teenage s***head shenanigans shot in 16mm black and white as a quasi Student Effort with the backing of Father Francis... not bad.