Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story) movie review (2016)

What “Bang Gang” lacks in originality, though, it makes up for with mood and technical prowess. Husson favors long, dreamlike tracking shots that take us inside the extreme lifestyle choice these teens have made, capturing images that are both playful and startling. In short, these high schoolers engage in booze-and-drug-infused orgies where the only rule is that there are no rules. (“It’s now or never!” is the battle cry that goes out on group texts announcing these pop-up bacchanals.)

But just as her camera roams about and the teens freely shuffle among partners, Husson’s story meanders in narrative perspective, and that lack of focus ultimately gives “Bang Gang” a feeling of emptiness. As it builds to a climax (if you will), her film should have been gripping; instead, it ends up feeling like a melancholy glimmer.

At the start, though, it couldn’t be more vivid or alive. 17-year-old Alex (Finnegan Oldfield) wanders around his massive, trashed house as girls make out with each other, guys play naked foosball and people of both sexes cavort in various positions as electronic music thumps. Flashing back two months earlier, we learn the origin of these wild parties; they basically started as an attempt to make Alex jealous.

The beautiful, blonde George (Marilyn Lima), a pouty-lipped sexpot in the tradition of Brigitte Bardot, slept with Alex one day after school while their mutual friends Laetitia (Daisy Broom) and Nikita (Fred Hotier) watched. With his divorced mother away in Morocco for nine months, the wealthy Alex is alone and taking advantage of the freedom. (This extends to his downtime, in which he gets high on the couch and absent-mindedly watches rhythmic gymnastics on TV.)

But he’s also a callous, serial womanizer, and so when he repeatedly ignores George’s texts and calls, she finds a drastic way to get his attention: by suggesting an all-dare version of Truth or Dare during one of their clique’s afternoon hangouts. It starts innocently enough but quickly escalates, leading to a members-only website and private, explicit Instagram photos and videos, all connected by a catchy name: The Bang Gang.

Even before the group gropes begin, Husson is rather matter-of-fact about what must be a generational comfort with nudity, sexuality and pornography. These kids are quick to strip down and go skinny-dipping or wrestle on the beach, as if the sheer tension of being a teenager is enough to make them want to explode. Meanwhile, all around them, a heat wave is rising and on the news there’s nothing but reports of train derailments and violence. Husson makes the pressure palpable from all sides.

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