Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: November 19, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
74
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
4
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzNov 23, 2021
There is almost zero chance that this film escapes the festival or art-house circuit to become a mainstream cultural artifact – its sexually explicit material all but guarantees it – but Jude’s work is an almost profound act of high-wire lampoonery that deserves to be seen and debated far and wide. Read full review
91
The PlaylistMark AschOct 12, 2021
Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn is hyperbolic, surreal, and, yes, obscene. Its over-the-top ending meets the moment at its own fever pitch—it’s a true masks-off moment, in more than one sense. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnMar 7, 2021
One of European cinema’s most unclassifiable auteurs has delivered the bitter pill we deserve. Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.O. ScottNov 18, 2021
Shooting in the summer of 2020, Jude and his team were clearly constrained by the realities of Covid-19, but they also succeeded in turning a bad situation to creative advantage, facing the awfulness and absurdity of the present with wit, indignation and a saving touch of tenderness. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiDec 15, 2021
Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn is a frustratingly brilliant (and brilliantly frustrating) experience that formally doesn’t really have a contemporary cinematic referent, an eyeball-slicing polemic by a bomb-throwing provocateur. Read full review
88
Washington PostPat PaduaDec 14, 2021
Writer-director Radu Jude’s fascinating, cynical dramedy “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn” careens between lowbrow humor and highbrow philosophy, resulting in a film that is as frustrating as life itself; it’s a perfect mirror of our times. Read full review
87
Paste MagazineNatalia KeoganNov 22, 2021
For those who wish to unravel the power dynamics inherent to sex, society and sensual pleasure while experimenting with what we as individuals are comfortable engaging with, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn is a masterpiece that stimulates emotionally and philosophically. Read full review
85
TheWrapDave WhiteNov 19, 2021
[A] brash, bruising comedy. Read full review
83
The Film StageRory O'ConnorMar 4, 2021
It is an incendiary, playful, and wonderfully exasperated piece of filmmaking that shows a director trying to draw some threads of sense from our current malaise. Read full review
80
CineVueChristopher MachellNov 26, 2021
Bad Luck Banging may appear to be deeply cynical of human nature, but in fact its real targets are the flimsy discourses that we build to obscure and justify our baser urges, couched in illusions of history and morality. Read full review
80
Little White LiesMatt TurnerNov 22, 2021
Here, faced with many barriers, a director is experimenting with the film form itself, taking apart all the tools at his disposal and smashing together their raw components to forge something new. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 2, 2021
Amid so many earnest, forgettable COVID-era and COVID-acknowledging movies around the world, here’s one that truly goes for it. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzNov 22, 2021
It seems more likely that this is a film about discoveries rather than statements, with the camera following people and then abandoning them to seek insight elsewhere, by looking into things rather than merely looking at them. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeMar 3, 2021
A simple premise can serve as a portal to profound social critique, for those willing to take the plunge. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeNov 18, 2021
While Jude succeeds at lampooning the chaos of contemporary political discourse, Bad Luck Banging takes on a few too many issues to make a coherent statement on any of them. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreNov 12, 2021
It’s a trifle hard to categorize. It has a light-enough tone that you feel it’s aiming for laughs, but those are few and far between. At least the message is clear, no matter how much meandering goes on as it’s being delivered. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineKeith WatsonMar 8, 2021
After a while, it’s hard not to feel like Radu Jude is simply shooting fish in a barrel. Read full review
60
EmpireIan FreerNov 29, 2021
Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn is a scattershot satire, wrapping its hit-and-miss point-making in a raunchy comic romp. Despite its faults, Radu Jude’s flick is one of the more audacious films of 2021. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 3, 2021
The film is a contemptuous slap at boredom, at hypocrisy and at everything petty and mean. I’m not sure that it entirely transcends all these things, but there’s a rebellious spark. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonMar 3, 2021
The humor is broad, the satirical targets many, the overall effect mixed. Read full review
60
Screen DailyJonathan RomneyMar 3, 2021
Whatever the film’s flaws, this is certainly the most unrepentantly confrontational work we’ve yet seen from Jude - and perhaps from any Romanian director. And, as the beleaguered, improbable figure of scandal at the centre of it all, stage actress Pascariu impresses with a crisply reserved performance. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonJan 20, 2022
Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn is provocative and irritating — and intentionally so. That makes it particularly annoying, because even as you’re provoked and irritated, you are also aware that writer-director Radu Jude wanted you to feel that way. Read full review
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