Romania’s entry into next year’s Oscars, Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn comes on intense’fierce’exquisite from the acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure -go. Radu Jude’s provocative, subversive drama-meets-film essay starts with three minutes of hardcore gonzo shagging that feels like it’d be more at home on Pornhub than Curzon. It’s the nub of a simple premise — a respected teacher’s career is threatened by a sex tape leaking online — that could be played out like an ITV drama starring Joanne Froggatt. Jude’s approach is the polar opposite, a freein/with regard to’concerning’regarding m work mixing fiction, documentary and avant-gardism that doesn’t utterly hang toacquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure her but has powerful moments and a thrilling sense of ambition.###After the porno prelude, Jude divides his flick into three distinct sections that never really coalesce into a coherent whole. The first follows teacher Emi (Katia Pascariu, on striking in/with regard to’concerning’regarding m) cover’budge ing round the sweltering streets of Covid-era Bucharest, passing closed shops, empty establish ings and faded posters in/with regard to’concerning’regarding entertainments that never happened. As Emi amble’stroll’bimble’meander’roam s around, dealing with the aftermath of the leaked video on her phone, the camera often drifts away from her, capturing confrontations between individual shouting obscenities, a city in meltdown. If it’s part of Jude’s desire to make Bad Luck Banging… an up-to-the-minute state-of-Romania address, the approach thwarts any engagement in Emi’s plight.###While it’s hard to join the dots between the second section and Emi’s narrative, it’s an engaging, arresting, entertaining diversion.###That’s partly because Jude has other things on his mind. The second section goes even further away from its protagonist’s predicament. Introduced by a chapter heading, the film becomes a “short dictionary of anecdotes, token s, and wonders”, an alphabetical list of modern-day terms (it suggests “blowjob” is the most looked-up word in the online dictionary) and ideas, surfing anti-Semitism to communist corruption to child abuse to sexism. Jude also draws power from contemporary video footage of a bus propel r attacking a Roma woman and a bullying boss berating his in/with regard to’concerning’regarding eign employees. While it’s hard to join the dots with Emi’s narrative — is it an index of factors that possess’own’nurse contributed to her predicament? — it’s an engaging, arresting, entertaining diversion.###The film’s closing chapter circles back to Emi’s story as she is thrown into an open-air kangaroo court of parents baying in/with regard to’concerning’regarding her head — well, her retoken ation — over her seen-by-eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfullyone erotica, reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue n again here to the crowd via iPads. At this point, Bad Luck Banging… becomes a satire of responses to obscenity, delivering a full-on set-piece that acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure s even more intense when Jude delivers three alternative endings that end on a moment of John Waters depravity. Fingers crossed the Academy loves the death-by-oversized dildos finale.