Sofia Coppola has carved out a unique place for herself in American cinema. She consistently delivers smart, melancholic dramas that explore issues of isolation, wealth, and adolescence. They generally feature female lead characters and often revolve around a central male-female relationship: two directionless adults in Lost in Translation, a daughter and her absent father in Somewhere, the friendship between the leads in The Bling Ring, the soldier and the residents of a girls school in The Beguiled.
Coppola's best work tackles these stories with a perceptive eye and emotional complexity. She has been taking on challenging material ever since her impressive debut The Virgin Suicides. Her films range from historical revisionism (Marie Antoinette) to perceptive character studies (Somewhere) and remakes of existing films (The Beguiled). Her background in fashion also shows up in the visual style of her work, like the vivid cinematography of Marie Antoinette. Her next project is reported to be a feature based on Priscilla Presley's memoir, which seems right up her alley.
'The Bling Ring' (2013) - IMDb: 5.6/10
The Bling Ring dramatizes the true story of a group of teenagers who burglarized celebrities like Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan in the early 2010s. It boasts interesting cinematography, a great soundtrack (including some of that era's biggest hip-hop hits), and Emma Watson admirably torching her Hermione persona. Watching it now, The Bling Ring serves as a great time capsule of 2013 - the music, the fashion, the slang, the social media.
Coppola clearly intuited early on the seismic changes that social media was having on society. You can see what she was aiming for: a searing indictment of social media, shallowness, and aimless youths. Unfortunately, these elements never cohere into the film that The Bling Ring wants to be. As a result, it's the weakest project in Coppola's filmography, but it's still decent and deserves more than the 5.6 it currently holds on IMDB.
'Lick the Star' (1998) - IMDb: 6.0/10
Coppola's first project as a director was this 14-minute black-and-white short film, shot on 16mm by Lance Acord, who would go on to be one of Coppola's frequent collaborators. It follows a seventh-grade girl (Christina Turley) who gets swept up by a clique of girls and their plot to poison the boys with arsenic. It's a grim premise, almost like something out of a horror movie, but the young cast members manage to make it believable.
In hindsight, Lick the Star comes across like a prologue to Coppola's entire filmography. It features many of the themes that would become her hallmarks: young female leads grappling with isolation and adolescence, and social pressure. Some of Coppola's stylistic flourishes are also on display here, like a title sequence comprising bright font and freeze frames over a punk-rock soundtrack, which she would also use in Marie Antoinette and The Bling Ring. The short provides an interesting glimpse into Coppola's headspace in the year before she undertook her first feature as director.
'Somewhere' (2010) - IMDb: 6.3/10
Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff) is a depressed movie star whose life is changed after his ex-wife suffers a breakdown and their 11-year-old daughter (Elle Fanning) comes to live with him. Marco is a kind of proto-Bojack Horseman: a washed-up actor in a creative slump, who escapes his emptiness with a mix of sex and substances.
In contrast to the detached Johnny, his daughter Cleo is open-hearted and sensitive but has issues of her own. Fanning gives one of her best performances in the role. Fundamentally, the movie succeeds because Coppola's depiction of Hollywood ennui is so sharp. It's an environment she had access to all her life, as the daughter of famous filmmakers. As a result, Somewhere contains some autobiographical elements.
'The Beguiled' (2017) - IMDb: 6.3/10
The Beguiled is Coppola's remake of the 1971 Southern Gothic starring Clint Eastwood and directed by Don Siegel. Both films take place at a girls' school after one of the students discovers a wounded Union soldier (Colin Farrell). The headmistress (Nicole Kidman) decides to nurse him back to health, but his presence destabilizes the household. Several of the girls become infatuated with him, and their obsession soon takes on sinister dimensions.
Coppola was motivated to remake the film because she wanted to retell the story from the perspective of the female characters. "I wanted the film to represent an exaggerated version of all the ways women were traditionally raised there just to be lovely and cater to men," Coppola has said. "The manners of that whole world, and how they change when the men go away." It makes for her darkest project to date, and one of her most ambitious.
'On the Rocks' (2020) - IMDb: 6.4/10
On the Rocks is another minor but by no means bad entry in Coppola's body of work. A kind of companion piece to Lost in Translation, it explores the relationship between novelist Laura (Rashida Jones) and her playboy father Felix (Bill Murray). The two of them suspect that Laura's husband (Marlon Wayans) is having an affair, so Felix encourages Laura to keep a close watch on him.
It makes for a breezy, charming dramedy that shows off Jones and Murray's talents. It's fun to watch them bicker and trade zingers. But there's also genuine affection in their complicated relationship, which elevates On the Rocks above most other movies like it.
'Marie Antoinette' (2006) - IMDb: 6.5/10
Most historical biopics strive for accuracy. Marie Antoinette gleefully discards it. This anachronistic portrait of the French queen features a modern soundtrack (including The Cure and Aphex Twin), amazingly over-the-top costumes, and, of course, Vans. At times, Marie Antoinette verges on Tarantino-esque historical revisionism.
"The film's candy colors, its atmosphere, and teenaged music all reflect and are meant to evoke how I saw that world from Marie Antoinette's perspective," Coppola has explained. The film is anchored by a powerhouse performance from Dunst, who brings depth to Marie Antoinette but still manages to be suitably absurd and hilarious.
'The Virgin Suicides' (1999) - IMDb: 7.2/10
Arguably Coppola's greatest film, The Virgin Suicides tells the story of five beautiful sisters living in a Detroit suburb in the 1970s. After one of the girls commits suicide, they are all placed under a microscope and become increasingly withdrawn and isolated. The film unfolds from the perspective of a few neighborhood boys, who idolize the girls but see them as ethereal and otherworldly.
"I really didn't know I wanted to be a director until I read The Virgin Suicides and saw so clearly how it had to be done," Coppola has said. "I immediately saw the central story as being about what distance and time and memory do to you, and about the extraordinary power of the unfathomable." Coppola captures the subtleties of Jeffrey Eugenides's novel and draws compelling performances from the leads, especially Kirsten Dunst. There are also bold directorial flourishes, including hand-drawn text, an x-ray vision shot, and a giant image of Dunst across the sky. It has aged exceptionally well and still delivers an emotional gut punch today.
'Lost in Translation' (2003) - IMDb: 7.7/10
Lost in Translation is far and away Coppola's most beloved film. It was a box office smash, grossing more than $100 million against a $4 million budget, and earned Coppola an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Bill Murray stars as a washed-up actor in Tokyo in the midst of a midlife crisis. He crosses paths with a young American woman (Scarlett Johansson) also grappling with loneliness and lack of direction.
Murray and Johansson shine, each delivering one of the strongest performances of their careers. Murray has never been more subtle, only hinting at the comedic chops he shows off in other movies, but absolutely nailing his character's sense of fatigue and sadness. Johansson is also terrific, though in a very different way, as a young woman disoriented by her recent divorce. They have great chemistry and many tender scenes together, even though neither achieves the exact happiness they seek. Not to mention, it features one of the best (and most cryptic) closing shots in film history. It remains Coppola's most charming movie, and the most mature.