FNC 2021 reviews: PARALLEL MOTHERS, A HERO, BAD LUCK BANGING OR LOONY PORN

The 50th-anniversary of Montreal’s FNC film festival just wrapped up, offering a huge slate of domestic and international titles including a few exciting last-minute additions. Those surprises included screenings of Pedro Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers, Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero, and the Quebec premiere of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune (which is now playing in theaters).

Below you’ll find reviews of both Parallel Mothers and A Hero, along with the almost indescribable Romanian sexual / political farce Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn.

The virtual edition of FNC runs through October 31. Head to the festival’s official site for the complete lineup and tickets.

Parallel Mothers

Director Pedro Almodóvar reunites with his frequent star Penélope Cruz for Parallel Mothers, a disarming drama about motherhood and the lingering trauma of the Spanish Civil War.

Cruz stars as Janis, a woman who finds herself pregnant after a one-night stand with a married man. While in the hospital waiting to give birth, she shares a room with Ana (Milena Smit) a young woman who fears being a single mother with only her overpowering mother to help.

The two develop a tight bond and keep in touch after their respective births, and their lives become intertwined even further when Janis hires Ana as a live-in nanny, with unexpected consequences for them both.

There are a number of surprising twists in Parallel Mothers, but as outlandish as the plot gets, Almodóvar always manages to focus on the two women at the heart of this complex story. Mothers, and the very idea of motherhood, have long been a source of fascination for Almodóvar (see: 1999’s All About My Mother), and his latest film excels at portraying two very different new mothers and the ways in which they each cope with their circumstances.

With Parallel Mothers, Almodóvar masterfully weaves in a modern story of two single mothers with the continuing ramifications of the country’s horrific civil war, an open wound Almodóvar is determined to ensure audiences never forget.

Parallel Mothers opens in theaters on December 24, 2021.

A Hero 

Newly announced as Iran’s entry for Best International Feature Film at next year’s Academy Awards, Oscar-winner Asghar Farhadi’s latest, A Hero, is a fascinating and tense look at crime, justice, and honour in modern Iran.

The film follows Rahim (Amir Jadidi) as he is released on a two-day leave from prison. Rahim is serving time due to a large debt he owes to his estranged brother-in-law Bahram (Mohsen Tanabandeh). While spending time with his family at home, Rahim also visits his girlfriend Farkhondeh (Sahar Goldust), who greets him with a bag of valuable gold pieces she’s been keeping for him.

It turns out Rahim and Farkhondeh have a plan to get Rahim out of prison and have his debt wiped clean; they plan to rehabilitate Rahim’s image and cast him as a hero, unfairly being held in jail by a spiteful family member. Without getting too far into the twisty plot details, Rahim announces his discovery of the gold pieces and proceeds to put up posters around the neighbourhood in search of their true owner. He eventually returns them to a teary-eyed woman who grateful admits that she lost them on a city bus.

Word of Rahim’s selfless act quickly spreads through social media and the news as the public fixates on this prisoner who willingly gave up such a valuable prize (while being imprisoned for owing money the gold might have covered).

Yet for all of the celebration, doubts begin to creep in about Rahim’s story. As the circle of lies continues to grow, it traps his family and friends in his complicated deceit, including his young son with severe verbalization issues who tragically becomes a pawn in Rahim’s PR campaign.

In many ways, A Hero is the film Dear Evan Hansen thinks it is; a perceptive look at how social media can build up unlikely heroes and subtly alter our perception of reality until the truth becomes almost impossible to process. Farhadi thrillingly unravels the layers of this story, slowly expanding the audience’s understanding of Rahim’s plotting and motivation even as the lies constantly obfuscate the truth.

With an unforgettable central performance from Amir Jadidi at its center, A Hero is a morally complex drama that tightens its grip on the audience from its opening moments right through to its inevitable conclusion.

A Hero arrives on Amazon Prime Video on January 21, 2022.

Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn

Describing Radu Jude’s Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn is a nearly impossible task. This Romanian sex comedy / political farce features graphic hardcore sex, meandering cinema vérité-style sequences, a dense and stark history lesson on Romanian history and the country’s battle with Nazism, a COVID sub-plot, and a bonkers ending complete with a Wonder Woman-like appearance for good measure.

If anything, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn is extremely ambitious. Shot during COVID, the film follows Emi (Katia Pascariu), a high-school teacher who learns that a private sex tape she shot with her husband has leaked. As a local uproar builds among the community, a town hall is organized for Emi to discuss the matter with school officials and the outraged parents.

From there, the film takes a narrative pause as Radu Jude transitions to a prolonged section on the hypocrisy of sexism and racism in modern Romania as told through a collage of interstitial moments highlighting various tenets of Romanian history. It’s a sobering and illuminating look at how the forces of capitalism have shaped the past and future of the country, which sets the stage for the film’s finale where Emi comes face to face with a throng of agitated community members pushing for her to be removed from her job.

That finale is where Jude truly pulls all of the disparate threads of this incredibly strange film together, as Emi is forced to justify her private life in front of sexist and racist rebuttals from the cross-section of locals present at what essentially turns into a mock trial. The film then cycles through three possible endings, including an off-the-rails option that sees Emi turn into a superhero and finally exact some well-deserved street justice on those who would dare to try to control her life.

Equally thrilling, confounding, and exasperating, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn is a singular viewing experience that serves as both a vital history lesson, as well as a dire warning of the rise of extremism in modern-day Romania.