Sophia Coppola's Obsession With Celebrity Culture In The Bling Ring

Grandiosity Sophia Coppola’s “The Bling Ring” is a film about America’s idolization of, and obsession with celebrity culture. In a 2013 New York times article, A.O. Scott stated that “The Bling Ring is, finally, neither a cautionary tale of youth gone wrong nor a joke at the expense of kids these days. Although Rebecca, Marc and Chloe may be shallow and amoral (Nicki seems more like a true sociopath), they are also acting in the grip of a genuine aesthetic compulsion, feeding an appetite for beauty and intensity that is hardly theirs alone.” Perhaps trying to say that the teens are drawn towards their actions by a celebrity obsessed society.
The transition for Marc from “the new kid,” to a member of Rebeca’s friend group is seamless. One

It is ironic then that once the jig is up and the teens are prosecuted, Niki looks at the situation as a way to get her foot in the door with the celebrity gossip community and extend her fifteen minutes of fame as long as possible. When interviewed with her mom Niki takes the spotlight as much as possible, and even speaks about the cases details despite her lawyers warning not to go on

Who of course is willing to give up Marc and the rest of her friends to save herself from punishment, this plan backfires however when the police find an article of clothing in Rebeca’s position that in fact, belongs to Paris Hilton. Rebeca left all of the other evidence but could not let this one thing go, clearly meant to mean that she couldn’t leave her obsession behind to save her life. There is another scene worth talking about where Marc and Rebeca are driving in a stolen car, Marc asks, “If we were ever not friends, would you steal from me?” Rebeca gives an answer that is both the truth and a lie at the same time, while she doesn’t steal from him, Rebeca does indeed betray Marc. While Marc did have the right idea, he asked the wrong question, what he really wanted to know was if he could trust her when or if things went south between the two of them.
It is made very apparent that that the main characters are every bit as obsessed with “things” as they are with celebrities, and there is absolutely an important connection there. The teens associate worth and meaning with materialism, the “Bling Ring” celebrates the idea