To help sift through the increasing number of new releases (independent or otherwise), the Weekly Film Guide is here! Below you’ll find basic plot, personnel and cinema information for all of this week’s fresh offerings.
Starting this month, we’ve also put together a list for the entire month. We’ve included this week’s list here, complete with information on screening locations for films in limited release.
See More: Here Are All the Upcoming Movies in Theaters for June 2016
Here are the films opening theatrically in the U.S. the week of Friday, June 17. All synopses provided by distributor unless listed otherwise.
Wide
Central Intelligence
Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Ed Helms, Aaron Paul, Amy Ryan, Danielle Nicolet, Ryan Hansen, Bobby Brown, Megan Park, Timothy John Smith
Synopsis: “After he reunites with an old pal through Facebook, a mild-mannered accountant is lured into the world of international espionage.
Starting this month, we’ve also put together a list for the entire month. We’ve included this week’s list here, complete with information on screening locations for films in limited release.
See More: Here Are All the Upcoming Movies in Theaters for June 2016
Here are the films opening theatrically in the U.S. the week of Friday, June 17. All synopses provided by distributor unless listed otherwise.
Wide
Central Intelligence
Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Ed Helms, Aaron Paul, Amy Ryan, Danielle Nicolet, Ryan Hansen, Bobby Brown, Megan Park, Timothy John Smith
Synopsis: “After he reunites with an old pal through Facebook, a mild-mannered accountant is lured into the world of international espionage.
- 6/16/2016
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
Welcome to every parent’s worst nightmare. A fully erect middle finger to the idea of abstinence-only education, Eva Husson’s “Bang Gang: A Love Story” is the opposite of a cautionary tale — it’s a salaciously soft-core movie about the upside of indiscriminate teen sex. Opening with a permissive Carl Jung quote that speaks to the trajectory of self-improvement (“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious”), Husson’s directorial debut is too derivative of forebears like “Kids” and “The Rules of Attraction” to earn a spot alongside them, but it nevertheless moves along on the strength of its slyly transgressive undertow.
Here is a rare new entry in that smallest of sub-genres: Movies that don’t punish teens for fucking their brains out (surprise surprise: it’s French). Which isn’t to say that the kids get off without any consequences, but rather that their libidos don’t sentence them to an after-school special. Kids, if you value the freedom to make your own mistakes, do everything in your power to prevent your parents from seeing this film.
“Bang Gang” (more on that title later) begins with a flash-forward that’s hard to shake, the camera tracking through an airy house in the affluent coastal city of Biarritz as dozens of naked teenagers hump each other in all manner of positions; the scene is like the orgy sequence from “Eyes Wide Shut” as it might have been shot by Terry Richardson.
But Husson doesn’t let you gawp at all the lithe young bodies for long, as the film soon begins to feel the weight of some unknown heaviness. “It was the year no one could forget,” an anonymous voiceover solemnly intones, genuflecting on some past trauma with the same wistful sense of wisdom with which Leonardo DiCaprio remembered his time on a remote Thai beach.
Not that it matters much, but we’ll later learn that the voice belongs to Alex (the English-born Finnegan Oldfield), a lanky high school senior whose only discernible quality is a general disregard for other people’s feelings. He and his clownish best friend Nikita (Fred Hotier, one of the film’s numerous first-time actors) can often be found smoking a blunt somewhere and streaming videos of porn star Sasha Grey in action. These two boys own several of the opening scenes, but Husson’s attention seems anchored to the first girls with whom we see Alex and Nikita fool around: Laetitia (Daisy Broom) is a virginal brunette with a strict father. George (potential breakout star Marilyn Lima) is a compact blonde who looks like an Olsen twin by way of Vanessa Paradis.
Their roles seem codified by the color of their hair, especially when George and Alex have sex while their two comparatively demure friends watch from the sidelines, but Husson is itching to test your assumptions, and the dynamic between these characters is soon twisted beyond recognition with the introduction of a shy, curly-haired fifth wheel named Gabriel (Lorenzo Lefebvre).
Read More: Two Teens Discuss an Awkward Encounter in Exclusive Clip from ‘Bang Gang: A Love Story’
Betrayal! Anger! Jealousy! All of it shot with the dreamy poeticism of Andrea Arnold and glazed with a blissed-out electronic score by M83 collaborator White Sea. Alex doesn’t care about George — she’s a conquest, and he disposes of her as soon as she’s reaffirmed his self-worth. But George has an idea to ease her pain, an inclusive plan for all their friends that will allow her to view people as interchangeably as Alex does: She calls them “bang gangs,” but they’re basically orgies. Games of truth or dare in which “truth” isn’t an option. These kids are ready to maul each other to begin with, but sprinkle in some throbbing house music and a flurry of cocaine and you’re off to the races.
Each of these characters threaten to make this their movie at some point, and while that lack of focus prevents them from achieving even the slightest whiff of depth, it also endows Husson’s story with the mutability of teenage friendships, which tend to shift with the tides. To some extent, these kids become as interchangeable to us as they are to each other. As the film’s latter half descends into an overlong blur of bang gangs, the anonymity of all that sex increasingly begins to seem like the point, as George and her friends eagerly reduce their bodies to dildos and vessels because they all just want to feel wanted, no matter the cost.
You’ve never seen a high school movie with such a conspicuous absence of body shaming, as these horny teens give each other a satisfaction that they can’t give themselves. “We all have superpowers,” George declares to the camera before getting railed by a half-dozen dudes off-screen (Husson only shows enough of the action to make viewers believe in what’s happening behind closed doors, and her camera ogles the male cast members almost as much as it does the girls). But maybe they shouldn’t be quite so eager to record the sexcapades on their phones — welcome to the age of Chekhov’s YouTube video.
Storm clouds are clearly forming on the horizon from the start, as Husson repeatedly interlaces scenes with radio reports of a gruesome train derailment. It’s a clumsy attempt at illustrating the myopia of her characters, and one that doesn’t work without the sociopolitical heft that “A Bigger Splash” recently used to anchor the same technique. These boys and girls are clearly sticking their heads into the ground (or whatever holes they can find), but their broad tunnel-vision is spread too thin to maintain much of its taste. “Bang Gang” may have a bit more sizzle than Mia Hansen-Løve’s similarly themed “Goodbye, First Love,” but it desperately misses that film’s wonderful sensitivity.
But Husson, to her credit, does succeed in “making the darkness conscious” for these thirsty young fuck buddies. Their story is so whitewashed that it flirts with irresponsibility — there’s no violence, and any STDs contracted can be cured with a pill.
At one point, a girl refers to the simplicity of her abortion as “a modern day fairytale,” and the same description could be applied to the whole film. But if “Bang Gang” climaxes a bit too cleanly, its moral rings true all the same: Kids have to be kids before they can become adults.
Grade: B
“Bang Gang: A Love Story” opens in theaters on Friday.
Get the latest Box Office news! Sign up for our Box Office newsletter here.
Related stories'Bang Gang: A Modern Love Story' Exclusive Clip: Two French Teens Discuss An Awkward Encounter'Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story)' Trailer and Poster: French Teens Explore Sexuality at Organized OrgiesNew Trailer For The Provocative 'Bang Gang: A Modern Love Story' Gets Naked...
Here is a rare new entry in that smallest of sub-genres: Movies that don’t punish teens for fucking their brains out (surprise surprise: it’s French). Which isn’t to say that the kids get off without any consequences, but rather that their libidos don’t sentence them to an after-school special. Kids, if you value the freedom to make your own mistakes, do everything in your power to prevent your parents from seeing this film.
“Bang Gang” (more on that title later) begins with a flash-forward that’s hard to shake, the camera tracking through an airy house in the affluent coastal city of Biarritz as dozens of naked teenagers hump each other in all manner of positions; the scene is like the orgy sequence from “Eyes Wide Shut” as it might have been shot by Terry Richardson.
But Husson doesn’t let you gawp at all the lithe young bodies for long, as the film soon begins to feel the weight of some unknown heaviness. “It was the year no one could forget,” an anonymous voiceover solemnly intones, genuflecting on some past trauma with the same wistful sense of wisdom with which Leonardo DiCaprio remembered his time on a remote Thai beach.
Not that it matters much, but we’ll later learn that the voice belongs to Alex (the English-born Finnegan Oldfield), a lanky high school senior whose only discernible quality is a general disregard for other people’s feelings. He and his clownish best friend Nikita (Fred Hotier, one of the film’s numerous first-time actors) can often be found smoking a blunt somewhere and streaming videos of porn star Sasha Grey in action. These two boys own several of the opening scenes, but Husson’s attention seems anchored to the first girls with whom we see Alex and Nikita fool around: Laetitia (Daisy Broom) is a virginal brunette with a strict father. George (potential breakout star Marilyn Lima) is a compact blonde who looks like an Olsen twin by way of Vanessa Paradis.
Their roles seem codified by the color of their hair, especially when George and Alex have sex while their two comparatively demure friends watch from the sidelines, but Husson is itching to test your assumptions, and the dynamic between these characters is soon twisted beyond recognition with the introduction of a shy, curly-haired fifth wheel named Gabriel (Lorenzo Lefebvre).
Read More: Two Teens Discuss an Awkward Encounter in Exclusive Clip from ‘Bang Gang: A Love Story’
Betrayal! Anger! Jealousy! All of it shot with the dreamy poeticism of Andrea Arnold and glazed with a blissed-out electronic score by M83 collaborator White Sea. Alex doesn’t care about George — she’s a conquest, and he disposes of her as soon as she’s reaffirmed his self-worth. But George has an idea to ease her pain, an inclusive plan for all their friends that will allow her to view people as interchangeably as Alex does: She calls them “bang gangs,” but they’re basically orgies. Games of truth or dare in which “truth” isn’t an option. These kids are ready to maul each other to begin with, but sprinkle in some throbbing house music and a flurry of cocaine and you’re off to the races.
Each of these characters threaten to make this their movie at some point, and while that lack of focus prevents them from achieving even the slightest whiff of depth, it also endows Husson’s story with the mutability of teenage friendships, which tend to shift with the tides. To some extent, these kids become as interchangeable to us as they are to each other. As the film’s latter half descends into an overlong blur of bang gangs, the anonymity of all that sex increasingly begins to seem like the point, as George and her friends eagerly reduce their bodies to dildos and vessels because they all just want to feel wanted, no matter the cost.
You’ve never seen a high school movie with such a conspicuous absence of body shaming, as these horny teens give each other a satisfaction that they can’t give themselves. “We all have superpowers,” George declares to the camera before getting railed by a half-dozen dudes off-screen (Husson only shows enough of the action to make viewers believe in what’s happening behind closed doors, and her camera ogles the male cast members almost as much as it does the girls). But maybe they shouldn’t be quite so eager to record the sexcapades on their phones — welcome to the age of Chekhov’s YouTube video.
Storm clouds are clearly forming on the horizon from the start, as Husson repeatedly interlaces scenes with radio reports of a gruesome train derailment. It’s a clumsy attempt at illustrating the myopia of her characters, and one that doesn’t work without the sociopolitical heft that “A Bigger Splash” recently used to anchor the same technique. These boys and girls are clearly sticking their heads into the ground (or whatever holes they can find), but their broad tunnel-vision is spread too thin to maintain much of its taste. “Bang Gang” may have a bit more sizzle than Mia Hansen-Løve’s similarly themed “Goodbye, First Love,” but it desperately misses that film’s wonderful sensitivity.
But Husson, to her credit, does succeed in “making the darkness conscious” for these thirsty young fuck buddies. Their story is so whitewashed that it flirts with irresponsibility — there’s no violence, and any STDs contracted can be cured with a pill.
At one point, a girl refers to the simplicity of her abortion as “a modern day fairytale,” and the same description could be applied to the whole film. But if “Bang Gang” climaxes a bit too cleanly, its moral rings true all the same: Kids have to be kids before they can become adults.
Grade: B
“Bang Gang: A Love Story” opens in theaters on Friday.
Get the latest Box Office news! Sign up for our Box Office newsletter here.
Related stories'Bang Gang: A Modern Love Story' Exclusive Clip: Two French Teens Discuss An Awkward Encounter'Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story)' Trailer and Poster: French Teens Explore Sexuality at Organized OrgiesNew Trailer For The Provocative 'Bang Gang: A Modern Love Story' Gets Naked...
- 6/15/2016
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Eva Husson's "Bang Gang: A Modern Love Story" follows a group of French teens in Biarritz discovering their own sexuality. When his mother goes abroad for work, Alex (Finnegan Oldfield) organizes sex parties (bang gangs) at his house with other teens that include plenty of booze, drugs, and free love. George (Marilyn Lima) is an active participant at these parties, while her best friend Laetitia (Daisy Broom) isn't wild about George's involvement in the parties mostly because she's having sex with Alex. Meanwhile, the shy Gabriel (Lorenzo Lefèbvre) reluctantly attends the parties only to get close to George on whom he crushes. When news of the parties reaches the teens' parents, the teens have to deal with the reality of STDs, teen pregnancy, and explicit videos making their way onto the Internet. Watch an exclusive clip from the film above in which two French teens discuss an awkward encounter between them.
- 5/19/2016
- by Vikram Murthi
- Indiewire
From Monday, May 2nd we won't be here anymore, we'll be at our shiny new site, Theplaylist.Net. Update your bookmarks, and be sure to sign up for our newsletter for a shot at winning an iPad. Last year, the festival circuit offered two French films that pushed the sexual envelope. Of course, there was Gaspar Noé's "Love," which earned the most attention thanks to its unsimulated sex scenes presented in 3D, and then there was Eva Husson's debut feature "Bang Gang: A Modern Love Story" which pretty much says everything you need to know in the title. And now it's getting ready to heat up stateside cinemas. Read More: BFI London Film Fest Review: Eva Husson's Racy Coming-Of-Age Tale 'Bang Gang: A Modern Love Story' Starring Finnegan Oldfield, Marilyn Lima, Daisy Broom, Lorenzo Lefebvre, and Fred Hotier, the story follows a group of teenage friends who...
- 4/29/2016
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Valley Of Love Us première Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
The day before the opening night New York Rendez-Vous with French Cinema screening of Guillaume Nicloux's Valley Of Love, starring Gérard Depardieu and Isabelle Huppert, attended by John Waters, Cindy Sherman, James Ivory, Angélique Kidjo, Emmanuel Finkiel (A Decent Man), Deniz Gamze Ergüven's Mustang co-writer Alice Winocour (Disorder), Nicolas Pariser and his star Melvil Poupaud (The Great Game), I met with Eva Husson for a conversation on her debut feature Bang Gang (Une Histoire D'Amour Moderne).
Eva Husson with Valley Of Love director Guillaume Nicloux Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Tara Subkoff's teenage #Horror, Ben Affleck, a cat and Gillian Flynn, author of David Fincher's Gone Girl, Martin Scorsese's The Wolf Of Wall Street, Cervantes, C.G. Jung, Dostoyevsky, Homer, and a Baudelaire, Nietzsche and Van Gogh connection bring us into the present.
Two best friends, teenagers Laetitia (Daisy Broom...
The day before the opening night New York Rendez-Vous with French Cinema screening of Guillaume Nicloux's Valley Of Love, starring Gérard Depardieu and Isabelle Huppert, attended by John Waters, Cindy Sherman, James Ivory, Angélique Kidjo, Emmanuel Finkiel (A Decent Man), Deniz Gamze Ergüven's Mustang co-writer Alice Winocour (Disorder), Nicolas Pariser and his star Melvil Poupaud (The Great Game), I met with Eva Husson for a conversation on her debut feature Bang Gang (Une Histoire D'Amour Moderne).
Eva Husson with Valley Of Love director Guillaume Nicloux Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Tara Subkoff's teenage #Horror, Ben Affleck, a cat and Gillian Flynn, author of David Fincher's Gone Girl, Martin Scorsese's The Wolf Of Wall Street, Cervantes, C.G. Jung, Dostoyevsky, Homer, and a Baudelaire, Nietzsche and Van Gogh connection bring us into the present.
Two best friends, teenagers Laetitia (Daisy Broom...
- 3/5/2016
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The distributor has acquired North American rights from Films Distribution to Eva Husson’s feature debut.
Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story) premiered in Toronto last autumn and screens on Friday night at Rendez-Vous, co-presented in New York with UniFrance and Film Society Of Lincoln Center.
Husson’s film explores the sexual exploits and awakenings of a group of teenagers in Biarritz, France in the age of social media.
Samuel Goldwyn Films plans a limited theatrical release in late spring.
Marilyn Lima, Finnegan Oldfield, Daisy Broom, Fred Hotier, and Lorenzo Lefebvre star. Husson wrote the screenplay.
“The film captures contemporary, adolescent sexual exploration in an honest and seldom-portrayed manner,” said Peter Goldwyn of Samuel Goldwyn Films, who negotiated the deal with Nicolas Brigaud-Robert on behalf Films Distribution.
“It’s both beautifully shot and acted and tackles a taboo subject matter head-on without shying away from the realities of teenage sexuality in a world where any moment can be...
Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story) premiered in Toronto last autumn and screens on Friday night at Rendez-Vous, co-presented in New York with UniFrance and Film Society Of Lincoln Center.
Husson’s film explores the sexual exploits and awakenings of a group of teenagers in Biarritz, France in the age of social media.
Samuel Goldwyn Films plans a limited theatrical release in late spring.
Marilyn Lima, Finnegan Oldfield, Daisy Broom, Fred Hotier, and Lorenzo Lefebvre star. Husson wrote the screenplay.
“The film captures contemporary, adolescent sexual exploration in an honest and seldom-portrayed manner,” said Peter Goldwyn of Samuel Goldwyn Films, who negotiated the deal with Nicolas Brigaud-Robert on behalf Films Distribution.
“It’s both beautifully shot and acted and tackles a taboo subject matter head-on without shying away from the realities of teenage sexuality in a world where any moment can be...
- 3/4/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The Tiff folks have unveiled their slated dozen features for their spanking brand new competitive section and they’ve managed to lasso some high profile world preems that will compete alongside Int. and Na premieres. Claire Denis, Agnieszka Holland and Jia Zhang-ke for which the name of the programme section is named after (Tiff referenced his 2000 film), will see a class comprised of the likes Joachim Lafosse and his piping hot The White Knights, David Verbeek (Full Contact starring Grégoire Colin – see pic above), Fabienne Berthaud and yet again actress Diane Kruger with Sky and Ben Wheatley‘s highly anticipated High Rise. Also included in the comp we find Pablo Trapero‘s Venice-bound The Clan, Eva Husson‘s hotly tipped directorial debut Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story) and a docu entry that sounds absolutely brutal true story from Alan Zweig in Hurt. The winner will be announced on...
- 8/13/2015
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
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