Bad Luck Banging or Looney Porn certainly earns the distinction of Best Movie Title of 2021. It promises irreverence and promiscuity, a degree of playfulness with an edgy adults-only bent. Bad Luck Banging delivers on that premise and then some, both literally and spiritually. The new film from Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude is built on militant intellectual ideas and has its fair share of x-rated imagery. Jude doesn’t see a discrepancy between the two, having the physical and the mental aspects of humanity bleed together in a take-no-prisoners satire of the downfall of contemporary civilization.
The film takes place in Bucharest, but it could take place in any Western city. Filmed in the Summer of 2020, there is a documentary aspect to Bad Luck Banging as Jude’s camera lingers on the COVID-ization of the Romanian capital. Nearly everyone is mask-clad and tensions run high. Hulking cars park on sidewalks, disobeying traffic laws and making life difficult for pedestrians. Decaying infrastructure sits next to massive billboards displaying icons of corporate branding. Basically, this is a purgatory of Late Capitalism, nominally functioning while containing a population of frustrated consumers forced to pretend everything is okay. Distracted by racist and sexist culture wars, the working class is too satiated to take a stand against the brutal elites.
Caught in the crosshairs of one of those wars is Emi (Katia Pascariu), a grade school teacher whose life goes to hell when a sex tape she made with her husband is leaked onto the internet. The video – which is shown in frank display in the film’s first five minutes – is rather vanilla in the universe of hardcore pornography; some garden variety sucking and fucking. But it causes a scandal when it’s seen by some of the students, and eventually by the parents, many of whom want her removed from the school. A less vocal contingent respect her privacy. It all comes to a head in an outdoor, socially-distanced meeting where Emi and her behavior is put on trial. Regrettable statements are made of the right-leaning, Fox News variety and Emi’s character is smeared to holy hell.
The outcome of the trial is subject to a bit of fun on Jude’s part, and it’s obvious before we even reach the film’s conclusion that Emi’s fate is not of utmost interest in the film. Instead we get a descent into madness, and an admission that no matter the outcome, we’ve already reached the end of the line on cultural sanity. The moment an adult woman’s right to have sex is put up for debate, the battle has already been lost. That doesn’t stop the debate between teacher and parents from having legs. Emi fights for herself and her autonomy against it all. It’s no small thing that her husband (who we learn is the actual person who leaked the video online) is not seen outside the video, and that his accountability is all but skipped over. Emi knows her fight is about more than her personal life, but about protecting people (particularly women) against conservative mobs.
With all the pornographic imagery throughout (and there’s plenty), the film’s most provocative sequence is probably one right in the middle, where Jude puts a pause on Emi’s narrative to create a visual “dictionary” of terms. For nearly a half-hour, Bad Luck Banging becomes a montage of cheeky, occasionally daunting infographics. Many are scathing takedowns of Romanian culture, while others take on the world at large. Altogether, they define the pitiful state of human history, marred by inequity and violence, hypocrisy and sanctimonious self-interest.
The aggression of Bad Luck Banging‘s intellectual ideas can be a bit alienating, regardless of what side you are. It’s unapologetic in its militancy and uncaring for those who may be turned off by the directness of its politics. There’s a disdain here for those willing to be baited into innocuous debates over an individual’s sex life, and an outright hatred for a ruling class that loves to see a middle class consumed while missing the forest for the trees. The anger in Bad Luck Banging might take some by surprise, which may be why the film’s ending (self-described as “just some fun”), breaks down toward a level of absurdity not seen since the likes of Buñuel. I admired the film’s confidence and found aspects of its dialectical conversation quite courageous. There’s certainly nothing like it in American movies right now.
Written and Directed by Radu Jude