The most obvious thing you'll notice about Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn is just how explicit it is. This opening sentence not only serves as something to entice you as a reader but also to warn you. There's nothing in the press about this film that prepares you for the opening five minutes. First, there's footage from a sex tape, and no, not one filmed for the sake of a film. A real full on sex tape, with real, full on, sex. It starts reasonably tame but then quickly turns into something you wouldn't expect to see on any big screen around the world outside of the red light district in Amsterdam. Even if you have an extremely prolific sex life, the shock of seeing these things on the big screen will certainly stun you, and most leave you feeling pretty awkward.
It's certainly an achievement for a film to give you such a powerful reaction in the first five minutes of its runtime. Even if it is through sheer shock value rather than anything well written. Sadly though, the film doesn't really manage to hold on to that level and slowly declines into quite a standard low budget film with interesting ideas but ultimately reasonably poor execution.
The film is split into three parts. The first is the main character walking around the streets of Bucharest (the Romanian Capital) on her way to work whilst also talking with the man she's seen fornicating in the aforementioned sex tape that's gone viral. This part is quite lovely and gives a sense of what this city is like. In addition, there are charming moments where the extras make it clear they're aware of the cameras.
The second part is a montage of various words being illustrated and explained, varying from “global warming” to “blowjob”. This felt like the director was either trying to pad out the run time or simply get a load of political opinions across in a short space of time. There's a few funny jokes to be had and some more literal porn to boot, but ultimately this part of the film feels the most pretentious and completely unnecessary.
The third part of the film is the main character being trialled by the parents of the children she teaches. The argument that ensues covers reasonably interesting topics like sexism and racism. It's always intriguing to see sides of the political debates that so often dominate the cyberspace of English speaking nations being tackled by citizens of countries that some people may never even have heard of. However, this segment does go on for a bit too long and definitely feels overly improvised; this inclination goes tenfold when the film gives you three different endings.
Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn is a very coarse and unique look at sex and culture in a Covid stricken world. At points it can be a very fascinating lens into how other countries dealt with the pandemic and their attitudes towards certain parts of history. Though at other points, it descends into a pretentious and overly explicit farce that feels almost as if it was written on the go. This film is certainly a movie-going experience you'll never forget, but maybe not for the right reasons.
Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn will be screening at the London Film Festival through October
