haitangkitty

I previously talked about how i can't stand true crime these days but i do have a lighter alternative to satisfy my curiosity for crime: scammer stories targeting the rich. The Bling Ring is not a scammer story but a celebrity burglary story. Luckily they only got 1-2 years in prison or community service but that might also been because of media exposure and connections. The Bling Ring is the perfect crime entertainment containing obnoxious teenagers, fashion, and fame all set in LA in the time of the birth of reality tv stars and Myspace. The crimes(+50 homes!!) happened during 2008-2009, but what people most know about is the fictional film based on these events:

The Bling Ring (2013)
Sofia Coppola Film

"I wanna rob"

The film has sort of gained a cult status. It is so so bad on all aspects. Direction, cinematography, script, acting, editing, costume - it's all ass. TO ME it does not elevate itself to a "so bad it's good" status. Sofia Coppola based it on an Vanity Fair article in which one of the Bling Ring members Alexis Neyers was interviewed. The Bling Ring is depicted as shallow fame hungry teenagers with no personality or emotions.

If it was done today i believe it would be a neo noir. As a writer myself i think that there's few things that seem easy to write but are actually very difficult: troubled and entitled addict teenagers and the effects of social media and reality tv. What i find interesting about the Bling Ring is that they did not come from poor backgrounds but still had issues feeling like outsiders being close to extreme wealth and fame. They were not satisfied with their lives.

Fun detail that the documentaries don't have is that the some of the same celebrities they robbed were also later arrested for robbing or driving under the influence (the famous mugshots of Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie) becoming part of iconic pop culture images.

I guess the film tried to capture the iconic pop culture of the time. The whole thing is so media sexy it's difficult to find what feels real about it.

The Real Bling Ring Hollywood Heist (2022)
3-part Netflix documentary

This documentary was also ass. It was so in your face. Trash entertainment like the film. It's a sensationalist documentary with the message that "fame is bad". Am i looking for depth in a story that doesn't exist?

What was interesting is that it gave lot of space for two of the Bling Ring members to tell their stories: Nick Prude and Alexis Neyers.

You want to know the mind of the criminal, their original story, their traumas, their motives.

Both Nick and Alexis talked a lot about how they used lot of drugs and were not doing well mentally at that time. Alexis had become the face of the Bling Ring which she clarifies is a false image since she only took part in one robbery(for what we know). BUT she was filming a reality show of her own at the same time when police found out about them, so to media she became the perfect face for the crime (Emma Watson played her in the film). She tells she had been painted as a shallow teenager when really she was an addict and exploited by the entertainment industry and by her own mother. Although what is interesting is that she sold the rights of her interview for Sofia Coppola and was a paid to consult in the film.

If someone from the Bling Ring actually enjoyed the fame it brought it was definitely Nick. He ratted out the whole group and told the police about crimes they hadn't even discovered. In the film he is kinda depicted as an awkward gay best friend, but in reality he did play a bigger part in the burglaries although he says everything was influenced by his friendship to Rachel Lee - the ringleader of the group whose absence in the documentary becomes a mystery. Nick and Alexis have conflicting statements and everyone is kinda blaming each other or the drugs, which is understandable since I don't think there's one objective telling of this case especially in hindsight.

The Ring Leader: The Case of the Bling Ring (2023)
HBO documentary

I was excited to find out that there was a documentary about Rachel Lee. She was the missing piece. During the trials she did not speak to media at all or try to gain attention in any way. She was not part of the Netflix documentary but she got her own more quality documentary on HBO, kind of getting the last say on the topic which is a very powerful move(if it is one). The documentary has the depth i was looking for, or maybe i mean emotion. You can see that talking about the Bling Ring is not easy for Rachel but she does give insights to her life. At one point she confesses she believes she was a psychopath at the time because she had no regrets and did what she wanted. She highlighted the friendship between her and Nick, two troubled outsiders talking about the darkness they shared. I think that would have been most interesting to see on film, a toxic codependent friendship that is doomed. That is also a very common teenage experience. I think it's also interesting how Rachel had troubles feeling like an outsider due to her Korean heritage in a time when the media (and all the IT girls everyone looked up to) were very much white and rich rich. I'm a bit younger than her but i remember being poc teenager during that era had a specific feeling of being so outside of everything. But the Bling Ring burglaries or most scammers are not some Robin Hood stories about punishing the rich but wanting to emulate the life that they have, wearing their skin and getting that rush of adrenaline and power for committing a crime and getting away with it. Rachel is the only interviewed member who doesn't give a clear motive for her crimes because she is not so sure of it herself. I also think she's extremely smart and maybe smarter than she lets people know.

I do not have nostalgia for that era. I think it's funny how young people now love early 2000's and the pop culture of that era but i remember it being trashy, misogynistic, racist, homophobic, and exploitative. I gotta admit i did watch a lot of MTV, both music videos and the reality series back then. I wanted to be American! I have to admit after watching the Bling Ring film and documentaries i had to check how Calabasas and the beaches of LA look like. One girl from my high school moved there because her family was in the film industry and she went to study film at UCLA, I was so jealous and maybe I still am. Being at the heart of it all, and being part of it!

Anyway next I'm gonna watch the Netflix reveal documentary of America's Next Top Model, another reality i also actively watched as a teen.

I was discussing homonationalism with my friends the other day. We talked about how the nationalists have managed to use lgbt and feminist rhetoric to recruit people and hijack the conversation. They talk about how immigration is a threat for lgbt and women, and how we are on the same side to fight against them. She recommended me a document called SD Börger. It's about the rise of Swedish homonationalism and it also takes partly place in USA where we meet a MAGA drag queen (which was almost like an parodical drag performance seeing him talking against trans people and drag story hours).

Nationalists/right wingers have for a long time been on the rise in Europe. There's a Conservative party coalition in the EU, where Poland is the biggest group and they have established the "Lgbt free zones" in parts of Poland. The homonationalists who were interviewed didn't really say anything or mind the fact that the party they support is against lgbt rights although at the same time they said they were welcomed in those spaces.

I have to say I never believe when a marginalized person says they feel welcomed in a religious/right-wing space because those people can hide their disgust and also they can use you as a mascot. I feel like supporting people who don't support you is based on self-hatred. I get that you don't see yourself as gay as some who are more open about it or more flamboyant, you just want to be seen as person, but it's a misconception that every leftist gay is only obsessed with their gay identity. And then there comes the fear mongering and lies that drag storytelling hours are used for grooming and pride is all about kink. The thing about nationalists is that their ideology is based on identity although they claim only the woke leftists are obsessed with that.

During the docu series I was also thinking about the role of journalism and false equal opinion dilemma and should we even be given these people a voice in media? I think that their experience can help us understand them more but their opinions and hatred have absolutely no nuance or place in society. I feel like these homonationalists are flirting with death, as are all nationalists/right wingers. Fascism is a death cult.

What I fond interesting was that they interviewed one yemeni gay living in Sweden who talked about his experience of having to flee al-qaeda and witnessing violence against his family for being human rights activists. He is a critisizing how leftists can't talk about these issues and so naturally he goes along with those who critisize it: the nationalists. I like how the documentary took the question of difficulties of immigration and then went to interview the yemeni family in Egypt to discuss these things by people who have been affected by them.

There is more nuance to be had in conversations, but there is no arguing with right wingers.

Overall, homonationalists are paradoxical people who have decided to exclude themselves from the gay community. I feel like some have done it in hopes of finding more acceptance from society and some have been radicalized by homophobic encounters from immigrants. These people do exists and should be taken seriously but thankfully they are a fringe group.

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