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] (07/19/2022)

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. (05/30/2023)

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). (03/10/2023)

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. (09/28/2022)

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. (09/27/2022)