Bang (1995)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Ash Baron-Cohen

Writer:

Ash Baron-Cohen (writer)

Release Date:

July 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Plot:

A young woman in L.A. is having a bad day: she's evicted, an audition ends with a producer furious she won't trade sex for the part...

Plot Keywords:

Implied Rape | Revenge | Police Officer | Prostitution | Independent Film

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Darling Narita	...	The Girl
Peter Greene	...	Adam
Michael Newland	...	Officer Rattler
Erik Schrody	...	Pimp
Michael Artura	...	Officer Trotter
James Sharpe	...	Officer Ham
Luis Guizar	...	Jesús
Art Cruz	...	Juan
David Alan Graf	...	The Producer
Stanley Herman	...	Landlord
Donald 'Notorious' D	...	O.G. On Rooftop
James Noble	...	Rooftop Dealer
Eric Kirkpatrick	...	Tucker
Wandi Herman	...	Piwi On Rooftop
David Conner	...	Ivan

Also Known As:

The Big Bang Theory (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

98 min | UK:99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo

Certification:

Singapore:M18 (re-rating) | Singapore:R(A) (cut) | UK:18

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Asylum Films

Goofs:

Factual errors: Lucy Liu's name is misspelled "Lui" in the credits.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Lips to Lips (2000)

Original, ridiculous, quasi-authentic

This is an interesting movie with some superior shtick. It's outrageous of course, but there's a semi-plausibility to it throughout, once you accept the initial premise. Here it is: Asian kind of girl (Darling Narita) gets kicked out of her L.A. digs by a landlord thinking only of his mortgage payments. He just locks her out and tells her he is selling her stuff. But she has some hope: she has an audition with a Hollywood producer. His "office" is his home in the Hollywood hills. Before she goes in she befriends a schizophrenic street person. He hustles her for a dollar. Inside the house "producer" proves to be particularly slimey and we can see he is just scamming her for sex, and when she doesn't come across he verbally abuses her and throws her out. The schizo dude meets her and trashes the street a little just to pent and splits as a motorcycle cop drives up. She runs because it looks like she did the trashing and he chases her into the lush hills where he handcuffs her and gives her a choice: On your knees and do the deed, or you'll spend a night in jail. After assuming the position she manages to grab his gun and handcuffs him to a tree. She has had a bad morning. She freaks and makes him strip and takes his uni, dons it, and his motorcycle and goes on to play cop around town.

She cruises some ghetto scenes and gets way into her act: she encounters pushers, dealers, killers, hookers, pimps, gangland lords and she gets engaged. Everybody thinks she's a cop, but she seems to forget herself sometimes. She hands out some money to some street people, runs out of gas and smokes some weed with a Latino hommie. By the way, the scene in the car with Juan and Jesus is just really excellent as it captures the barrio style. Then it gets a little rough. The cute cholo gets blasted in a drive by as his bro is filling her gas tank. She takes off after the perps and ends up shooting a dude. She spots this Asian hooker and tries to tell her she is doing wrong but gets kicked around by her and her pimp for her trouble.

Strange how the film has turned a little. She walked more than a mile in the cop's shoes and suddenly we have identification with the enemy in a sense. The movie is now a kind of slapstick symbolic jaunt showing how being a cop in the modern urban scene corrupts absolutely. (I wonder how much of this was intended by Director and writer Ash.)

She goes to the ocean to shake off what has happened to her. And then of course she returns to have her way with the lecherous producer and the wayward cop and further befriends the schizo dude. Ah, gee it's kind of sweet in a la la land sort of way.

Best joke on the square: CIA = Cocaine Import Agency.