BANGER.

BANGER. is an incredibly frenetically filmed adventure of one night in Prague, and at the same time it is very progressive filmmaking that brings welcome and mainly necessary waves to the otherwise quite stagnant waters of contemporary Czech cinema. I have some minor reservations; I would have cut back on some things and pushed the envelope on others, but all in all it is a high energy ride with dynamism, a distinctive directorial grip and authentic acting. [KVIFF 2022] (19.07.2022)

A punk junkie comedy with a cadence of humorous profanity and one-liners and a dramatic climax that gives it an element of seriousness. The film’s creative editing and the authentic form of its hectic handheld (iPhone) camerawork not only give it a solid sense of drive, but also make its otherwise sparse story entertaining, even though the shaky close-ups of faces are too much for the big screen. The depth of Mišík’s expressive acting in the final scene reveals the greatest trauma of his life, when as a child he wanted ice cream and didn’t get it. You will enjoy this film more if you aren’t familiar with the formalistically similar but, in terms of screenwriting, more sophisticated work of the Safdie brothers (especially Uncut Gems). (10.03.2023)

This subculture is completely alien to me, for example, I had no idea about the existence of that funny painted tough guy until Wednesday. The theme and characters of BANGER. went really over my head, but I still have to appreciate that such a film has been made here in Czechia. The screenplay as a whole makes sense (though I have problems with certain details), the performances are fine, and the comedic timing of the dialogue exchanges between Mišík and Bendig is top-notch. I'd ease up on the memes, though. (56th KVIFF) (10.07.2022)

A bit of a disappointment for me. The overall look of the film is quite amateurish, but that's forgivable. The acting is okay. Adam Mišík's performance is authentic and Marsell Bendig is the best thing about the film, even if he was hard to understand at times. Story-wise, it's simple and I was hoping the film would both be about more characters and go more to the extreme. I was expecting a proper rave party and even in terms of drugs it's not as intense as European or American films. This progressive form is welcome Czech cinema, but a film like Vyšehrad was completely different in every way. 6/10. (08.03.2023)

Dancer in the Dark, Pusher, Safdie’s Good Time with a gem, and Barry Lyndon. A hypnotic Friday quintet with which Adam Sedlák forcefully tackles his version of The Prestige. Much like in Domestique, the characters become victims of their unfulfilled ambitions, and this time he makes sure to deliver on emotion. It’s uncomfortably physical, funny (with verbal sparring with the bouncer Míra), without any attempts to moralize something as common as cocaine use, and with a perfectly set-up dilemma of whether the dealer with a conscience will end up pissing or shitting himself on stage. Adam Mišík may not be Mads Mikkelsen, but here he significantly limited his mole-like perspective on the noonday sun and fit well into the non-acting pair with Marsell Bendig. (30.05.2023)

Rap passes me by in a giant arc and I'm not a fan of handheld cameras, yet BANGER. won me over and I was extremely impressed. It's basically one incredibly wild and frantic ride that works almost perfectly from start to finish. A big part of this is the fact that the film is shot on an iPhone and that the action takes place over the course of a few hours. Thanks to the original insertions and the novel visual concept, this is an extraordinary experience in the context of Czech cinema. When it comes to the acting, I was most entertained by Marsell Bendig (I even thought he was Jan Bendig for a good part of the film), he truly amazed with his performance. Towards the end, the film reminded me of Coal Tower, but it was qualitatively on another level. (27.09.2022)

I hate Adam Mišík, I hate Czech cinema and I hate filming on a mobile camera. And, world wonder, all my skepticism is gone and the result is much better than I could have expected. It's hard to say if it's because there are (non-)actors instead of Czech actors, so there’s none of that “intense” acting, but natural acting resulting from the situations, or because BANGER is simply bold at first sight. Because to come up with the simple idea of "a budding rapper's path to stardom", with a damn fine performance by Mišík (I applaud him, I didn’t believe in him at all, but he pulled this one off flawlessly), to conjure a literal BANGER out of nothing takes talent. I had a great time and Marsell Bendig as the lead comedian pulls the film from dope drama to comic heights and I had a great time. EDIT: After two days, I have to up it to a full score because the whole film is still resonating with me, from Mišík and his chilling performance to the stunning visuals to the main soundtrack. Unreal. (28.09.2022)

"So, punks, are you going to buy something?" Well, the best film I saw during this year's Summer Film School, I actually watched on my tablet on the way back by train. Quite significant for a film that is so detached from the current Czech film context. BANGER. provokes, among other things, with its narrative simplicity, incredible naive chivalry of the main character in the face of his own mistake, and by switching from comical dialogues to naturalistic nightmares of a recreational drug user. However, in all these aspects (however unbelievable from the perspective of the "normal" world), it adheres to the current hip-hop mentality, endlessly repeating stories of dealers with a heart in the right place, striving from nothing to the top (which here is occupied by a person who seems to have another person's head stretched over his own and is therefore a perfectly chosen mentoring character for this surreal broken world). At the same time, they are still aware of its veneer and have their focus on reality, whether it's the hood, family, or hoe. The storytelling of BANGER. is fantastically complemented by video clips and memes known to the internet community today, which currently complete the context of its world, but also help them survive into the following years, because internet phenomena come and go, whereas BANGER. will be with us for a long time, because in the end, it's actually a quite sensitive, succinct, and stylistically radical journey through Prague in the 2020s, which, unlike many other Czech youth films, not only does not adopt the language of Western genre production, but is directly linked to the current Prague nocturnal zeitgeist, being sensitive to many of its elements. However, I still think that comparing it to Refn's Pusher is not entirely appropriate, as Pusher often takes place in the large, soaked Copenhagen, which is one of its most distinctive elements. Here, thanks to the specific rules for filming on a phone, we are still locked in a very narrow, focused strip, with no spatial exposition, and the city is an unpleasantly chaotic, organic mass. Lastly, I was pleased by the jabs at the overplayed Prague elites like David Černý, Petr Novotný, or Bruno Ferari, who are emasculated here into the foolish club-goers, the Friday Nighters, who need two Gs for the evening to forget about how no one relevant cares about them. "David Černý, damn, looks like a tramp, man, he made those babies." "You motherfucker, what babies are you talking about?!" (02.08.2023)

Film, which is the most different from Czech film projects of 2022 and will probably divide generations the most - at least in terms of language - those over 40 will understand less, those over 50 even less, and from then on it may be explicitly for subtitles. I respect innovation, but the form bothered me. On the other hand, as a whole, the story made sense to me, I was afraid it would be just about someone's embarrassing rap, someone who loves piss actions and pours their anger on everyone around them. However, we cannot compare acting with Arvéd at all, Kern and Rašilov are miles away from Mišík and Bendig, although the comparison is again difficult. It is definitely good that such a film was made. (02.03.2023)

BANGER. really surprised me... The environment depicted isn’t familiar to me, but Adam Sedlák managed to film it in a way that made me experience all the main character’s struggles alongside him. Technically and direction-wise, the film meets the highest European standards (it’s quite amusing that a film shot on an iPhone outshines most of the competition on the Czech scene). The lead duo is very believable, and Marsell Bendig definitely earned himself more roles with this performance. For local standards, BANGER. holds up well script-wise and manages to surprise within its genre. And the ending is truly shocking (I didn’t expect Sedlák to take that direction... I tip my hat to him for his bravery). I have to agree with others. It’s one of the most progressive Czech films in recent times :). (13.03.2023)

Surprisingly, quite a good digital-camera work from the Czech Republic about which was my attention caught with a nomination turned into win for the best supporting actor for Marsell Bendig, which initially seemed like a rather interesting phenomenon to me. Mišík's performance was also surprisingly good. The whole setting and theme were something that is completely beyond me in all respects, but overall I wasn't bothered much by it. The performances and visuals that add authenticity really carry it on their shoulders. Some scenes were extremely funny at times, and that's what I value most in movies — when the humor succeeds. On the other hand, the dark tone also works well, so for me it's a nice balance. (20.06.2023)