YMMV / The Bling Ring

• Awesome Music:
  • "Super Rich Kids" by Frank Ocean over the end credits.
  • "All of the Lights" and "Power" by Kanye West in the main film itself.
• Best Known for the Fanservice: As noted below, the film's marketing played to the fact of Emma Watson playing a sexy character, making considerable use of a shot of her doing a seductive tongue roll that then made the rounds online. The rest of the female cast members are practically on fanservice duty for ninety minutes, showing off the sexy outfits they stole and spending a lot of time time clubbing.
• Broken Base: The lack of characterization or insight into the teens' motivations beyond "I want cool stuff" or "I want to be famous" is a frequent attack of the narrative, with a lot of viewers finding it impossible to get invested in the story or the characters. There are, however, plenty of other viewers who like the documentary feeling of the film, and point out that this is a real event and adding typical Hollywood dramatizations was not the main goal here.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Marc being portrayed as the most moral member of the group can be awkward to watch following his real-life counterpart Nic Prugo pleading guilty to stalking and soliciting rape in 2016.
  • Marc being portrayed as Ambiguously Gay is kind of awkward considering the actor playing him got in trouble for homophobic tweets. Among them was him complaining about always playing gay roles, which he does in this.
  • Ironically enough, Emma Watson had her wallet stolen while filming.
• Jerkass Woobie: As vapid and stupid as Nicki is, the sight of her being dragged into a police car while crying out for her mother is quite sobering. In real life, Alexis Neiers had to later seek treatment for drug addiction.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Emma Watson is the main reason anyone would express interest to see the film, especially her take on a wild young adult role. Much of the film's viral marketing are photos of scantily-clad Emma and her notorious seductive tongue roll in the trailers.
• Les Yay: Nicki and Sam. They're actually adoptive sisters for those who are into that sort of thing.
  Sam: Does my butt look good in these jeans?
  Nicki:Your butt looks awesome.
• Nightmare Fuel: The scene where Sam finds a gun in Megan Fox's house and proceeds to point it at Marc, thoroughly terrifying him. Neither of them knows if it's loaded, and she is clearly enjoying messing with him; not helping the paranoia factor is that she's obviously a bit drunk, too. Later on when she takes the gun to her boyfriend's house to show off, it does go off by accident, barely missing him, meaning she could have accidentally shot him, herself, or Marc with it while she was playing around.
• Paranoia Fuel: The idea of people breaking into one's house and rifling through one's things, as well as the fact that (at least during the time of the robberies) any random stranger could get someone's address. In a way, they were lucky that they were only shallow teenagers who wanted designer clothes, as much worse people could have taken advantage of those lapses in their security.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • This was one of Taissa Farmiga's first roles before she'd become better known for American Horror Story.
  • Likewise for Israel Broussard, who'd be better known for Happy Death Day or To All the Boys I've Loved Before.
  • Logan Miller has a tiny role before more prominently appearing as Martin in Love, Simon and being the voice of Nova in Ultimate Spider-Man (2012).
  • Maika Monroe is a featured extra, but became more recognisable for her credits in The Guest, It Follows and Independence Day: Resurgence.
• She Really Can Act: Although Emma Watson had provoked this reaction as the Harry Potter films progressed, critics embraced her willingness to star in smaller independent films that weren't guaranteed hits — and also to go completely against type as a vapid ditz. Time Out said:
  "The real story here isn't the good-girl-goes-bad stunt casting; it's that Watson can act. Against the odds, the Harry Potter star gives a sharp, knowing smart performance as Nicki."
• Signature Scene: If it's not Nicki's slow-motion tongue roll, it's The Oner from the outside of Audrina Patridge's house getting robbed.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: The first half of the film is quite slow, with the burglaries getting formulaic and no characterization beyond vague traits. Then when the police start catching the teens, it becomes a bit more interesting.
• So Okay, It's Average: Not a lot happens in the film, except for repetitive shots of the teens going in and out of the celebrity homes - complete with endless Costume Porn of all the fancy clothes they steal. No real attempt is made to get to know the characters, and they're not busted for the robberies until well over an hour into the film. Reviews praised the cinematography but criticized the lack of character development.
• Testosterone Brigade: The film is almost entirely female-centered and The One Guy is likely gay. Despite this, a few males turned up to see Emma Watson in sexy outfits. The marketing realized this and capitalized with various shots of the girls dressed up in the trailer.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The entire set of protagonists really. No real attempt is made to get to know them - Rebecca has a difficult home life that's implied, Marc is suggested to have a tricky relationship with his dad and Nicki and Sam do appear to be indulged by their mother - but all of those details are never touched on.

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