Cinema: Booze, Birkins and bad behaviour in California

Robbing the homes of the rich and famous as a social enterprise - or going shopping without having to pay for anything - may be an outrageous notion to us ordinary folk, but when you're a) obsessed with fame, b) desperate to grab a slice of the high life and c) attend high school in Southern California with like-minded people, then it's just kids having a blast.

Well, not really. The Bling Ring is based on the hard-to-believe but apparently real-life antics of a cabal of high school students who perpetrate home invasions when the celebrity occupants are out of town, and then depart with stashes of luxury consumer goods, cash, clothes and cars, among other things.

Booze, Birkins and bad behaviour are all part of the programme in this film, written and directed by Sofia Coppola, about the extremes that some people will go to in order to keep up with the Hiltons and the Lohans.

The movie is part satire and part social commentary on celebrity excess and young people who have - to put it mildly - an unhealthy fascination with the upper echelons of the Hollywood set. As Coppola's movie makes clear, this is not the crowd you want your kids to hang out with.

The friends you make in high school could remain friends beyond graduation.

In The Bling Ring's case, this is not a good thing. Choose wisely, and you could be well-connected for life. Or you could end up with a criminal record. As a self-aware teen says in one early scene: "Be careful about who we surround ourselves with because we end up being the average of those people."

Unfortunately, bad taste in clothes and friends is not a jailable offence. Impressionable new student Marc (Israel Broussard) is befriended by Rebecca (Katie Chang), a cutie who makes a habit of taking illegal tours of Hollywood homes.

Marc is coerced into tagging along and pretty soon, it turns into a group activity, with Chloe (Claire Julien), Sam (Taissa Farmiga) and Nicki (Emma Watson) also rummaging through (OMG!) Paris and Lindsay's closets.

"Look at all the Louboutins!" they shriek in astonished delight.

Rebecca is the bling leader and the rest follow blithely - all for the chance to wear celebrity-owned clothes and lie down on Megan Fox's bed.

Marc develops a taste for women's underwear but by the warped standards of his peers, that's practically normal.

Even more incredible is the fact that they don't get caught sooner - you'd think security systems and police patrols would be more adept at rounding up amateur burglars who waltz in and out of luxury homes in the Hollywood Hills.

Viewers in staid Singapore might find it difficult to relate to the goings on in The Bling Ring, especially given the (non-)response of the respective parents, who are clueless beyond belief.

Reality is far removed, and the only mantra that counts for these kids is the one that - like those Louboutins - gives them their kicks. "I want some Chanel," they declare. What they get is their just desserts.

Rating: C+

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