''Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story)'' (french: Bang Gang (une histoire d'amour moderne)) is a French

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by Eva Husson. It was shown in the Platform section of the

2015 Toronto International Film Festival The 40th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 10 to 20 September 2015. On 28 July 2015 the first wave of films to be screened at the Festival was announced. Jean-Marc Vallée's ''Demolition'' starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Naom ...

. It is Husson's directorial debut.

Plot

Biarritz Biarritz ( , , , ; Basque also ; oc, Biàrritz ) is a city on the Bay of Biscay, on the Atlantic coast in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the French Basque Country in southwestern France. It is located from the border with Spain. ...

, teenager Alex temporarily lives alone (and later with his best friend Nikita) while his mother is abroad for work. In his house he organizes

sex parties Group sex is sexual behavior involving more than two participants. Participants in group sex can be of any sexual orientation or gender. Any form of sexual activity can be adopted to involve more than two participants, but some forms have their ...

(called ''bang gangs'') with other teenagers, also including

recreational drug use Recreational drug use indicates the use of one or more psychoactive drugs to induce an altered state of consciousness either for pleasure or for some other casual purpose or pastime by modifying the perceptions and emotions of the user. When a ...

. Videos of the parties are posted on a password-protected website. The girl George and her best friend Laetitia are active participants of the parties. George does not like that Laetitia has sex with Alex, with whom George had sex first. Gabriel does not like to attend the parties at first, but finally goes to one to have sex with George, in a separate room.

Sexually transmitted infection Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), also referred to as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and the older term venereal diseases, are infections that are Transmission (medicine), spread by Human sexual activity, sexual activity, especi ...

s, a

teenage pregnancy Teenage pregnancy, also known as adolescent pregnancy, is pregnancy in a female adolescent or young adult under the age of 20. This includes those who are legally considered adults in their country. The WHO defines adolescence as the period bet ...

and unintended posting of the videos on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

make the parties known to parents and other authorities, after which they are discontinued. Gabriel and George are concerned about publicized sex videos of George. Gabriel finds the boy who posted them and forces him to remove them. The infections are easily treated. The pregnant girl has an

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...

. George and Gabriel start a regular relationship.

Cast

Finnegan Oldfield Finnegan Oldfield (born 10 January 1991) is a French-British actor, who has appeared in more than thirty films since 2003. Background Career In 2005, age 14, Oldfield landed the lead role in the TV film '' L'Île Atlantique''. He dropped out ...

as Alex *

Marilyn Lima Marilyn Lima (born September 28, 1995) is a French actress known for her roles in '' A Mermaid in Paris'' (2020), ''Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story)'' (2015), '' Skam France'' (2018–2020) and '' J'ai menti'' (2021). Career Lima is originally f ...

as George * Daisy Broom as Laetitia * Fred Hotier as Nikita * Lorenzo Lefebvre as Gabriel

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

the film has an approval rating of 67% based on reviews from 36 critics, with an average rating of 6/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

the film has a score of 53 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Peter Debruge of Variety wrote: "The lack of a single clear character with whom to identify ultimately proves problematic." Boyd van Hoeij of

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

wrote: "Originality or insight aren’t very high on the priority list of this drama."

Accolades

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bang Gang A Modern Love Story 2015 films 2015 drama films 2015 directorial debut films 2010s French-language films French drama films Films directed by Eva Husson 2010s French films Ad Vitam (company) films