In brief... some critics had issues with The Bling Ring, like that was Sofia Coppola going in a more shallow stylistically/character-based way about that material. If anything, she may have just been going back to her roots that were already on display in Lick the Star. When a Clique is formed, you better watch out, boys and girls! In this case, there's a "plot" that these girls get from, of all things, Flowers in the Attic (who hasn't), and they're going to poison a boy (or boys) at school. Because... Kill the Rats or some metaphor for Destruction due to privileged boredom.
This is all delivered in a very flat and affected style by these young performers. It's not something I find all that satisfying on a character level, because Coppola is cutting so quickly from one girl to the next that there's no time to develop anyone. It's like a lot of cut-out sketches of teenage girl ennui, and maybe she thought if things were light in the script direction and editing could take center stage to keep things moving along (and god I wish there was more time with Bogdanovich for the principal - guess she got a favor). And there's a slow-motion shot of the girl Chloe as she walks into school that's cool.
Ultimately though, this attention to how rotten a group gets as soon as they congregate and conspire (and then fall on their proverbial faces) is not that far removed from Bling Ring (or to an extent Virgin Suicides). On one hand Coppola would get far richer performances with a more assured grasp of tone and emotion tthere. On the other, as a short burst of inspired teenage s***head shenanigans shot in 16mm black and white as a quasi Student Effort with the backing of Father Francis... not bad.
Plot summary
A clique of school girls devise a secret plan that they code-name "Lick the Star".
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
April 16, 2018 at 07:06 AM
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Sofia Coppola telling the world what she's concerned about in 13 minutes. Not bad!
Teenage Angst Coppola Style
Lick the Star tells the story of a girl, who after some accident, found herself at odds with her cool girl clique. When she saw an opportunity, she spread damaging rumors that broke free the clique but results to their friend being ostracized by their school AND her turning the table right at her.
This is probably the world that Sofia is most knowable of. Its the cool girl eats her cake kind of aesthetic that she tends to really draw herself towards BUT with I tingle of punk aesthetics. Its an interesting style that she went away from her feature films.
This is probably the most I felt that was alive and active in her filmmaking till she'll make Mary Antoinette. There is a weird indifference and isolation in her films that tends to just be sitting on that dries my eyes out. I wish she pursues this style more to be honest.
Good short.
There's Always a Bunch of These
I taught middle school for 43 years and watched as groups of girls developed these cliques. It generally was created by a single girl whose family had money and a boatload of permissiveness. There were the usual toadies, the hangers on, who followed these girls around. They were give their power by the others in the school. This captured a bit of it.