Bling Ring; America's Obsession with Bad Behavior

   Sofia Coppala's new movie "Bling Ring" is out now, and right when I saw the ad I decided that I wanted to see it. So, I did and it was kind of disappointing.  I thought that she missed a lot of great opportunities to talk about a very interesting topic; Americans obsession with bad behavior.  She glimpsed over this theme slightly but not enough, and in my opinion, this theme is what the whole movie should have been about.
   Amanda Bynes, Lindsay Lohen, Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton.  These are all celebrities who America pays (or at least paid) tons of attention to for bad behavior.  DUIs, public sex tapes, stealing, drugs, the list goes on.  We've all seen articles about these celebrities and even read them or skimmed them and thought "Gosh some people!" The fact that these celebrities continue to be publicized and looked up to by the American public is extremely fascinating.  We don't exactly support their behavior, but we do put them on the front page in all capitals.

   Americans find this celebrity bad behavior entertaining.  Televisions are filled with reality programs like "The Hills", "Keeping Up with the Kardashians", and all of the "Real Housewives" shows.  Magazines like "People" and "Star" crowd our counters plastered with photographs of celebrities and their most recent escapades; "A Night on the Town!" "ANOTHER DUI?", you get the picture.

   In "Bling Ring" Coppala could have created a fascinating layered movie about this odd obsession.  The characters in the movie have the same obsession, they break into houses of celebrities known for their dramatic or out right bad behavior and then take selfies of themselves to show off.  Already that is an extremely interesting combination, people doing immoral things to people known for being immoral and then publicizing the actions and being looked at as "cool" or "fun".  This continues to be captured throughout the film, the characters are all over the media after being caught, fan clubs are created on the internet for their wrong doings, and one character, Nicky (Emma Watson), goes on to USE her recognition from the law cases to become famous.  People can become FAMOUS by manipulating their bad behavior into fame, and that in itself is interesting, but the fact that the American public is obsessed with this "fame" makes it even more so.

Posted in: Amanda Bynes,america,Bling Ring,celebrities,DUIs,fame,film,Kim Kardashian,Lindsay Lohen,magazines,movies,obsession,Paris Hilton,publicity,sex tape,sofia coppola,teen,women