CANNES REVIEW: 'The Bling Ring' Strikes With Brilliant Satire

Sofia Coppola's excellent film The Bling Ring, a smart send-up of celebrity obsession run amok, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Thursday. The film, which stars Emma Watson and relative unknowns Katie Chang and Israel Broussard, is based on a real-life gang of dim-witted L.A. teens besotted with Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Megan Fox – not to mention their handbags and baubles. Bling Ring takes a wildly satiric tone unlike Coppola's previous critically acclaimed films Lost In Translation and The Virgin Suicides to excellent effect. Leslie Mann plays the mother to Watson and two other girls, whom she home-schools with a lesson plan inspired by The Secret. Watson's spot-on L.A. girl accent and mannerisms capture the inanity of their materialist world. With cameos by Kirsten Dunst and Hilton herself, The Bling Ring closes the meta-loop in this brilliant celebrity satire. —Erik Meers