'Banger' Netflix Review: Vincent Cassel Is The Highlight Of This Boring DJ Film

One could consider it funny how Vincent Cassel went from playing Marcus in Irreversible to a DJ named Scorpex in So-Me’s Banger, but maybe in another world we’d see angry Marcus grow up and vent out all his energy turning tables, eh? Banger is a comedy movie set in France that tells the story of a DJ turned secret agent. The story is a very basic spy adventure, but it’s honestly most lacking in terms of comedy. I think if you watched the movie without any expectations at all, you might enjoy it just a little bit. Remember when Zayn Malik made Bollywood movie-level music videos just for fun? Well, this movie feels like an extended cut of a music video like that. In the movie, Luis is a forgotten DJ who is just trying to stay relevant until he’s asked by the police to help them out with a massive drug bust they’re planning. 

What I do appreciate about the film is that it doesn’t look like a neon-lit DJ set from start to finish. There’s actually a lot of light in this movie. I would not recommend watching Banger dubbed, because the charm lies in the original French. While the comedic timing might be lost in translation, given I don’t understand French, I still found the acting comes through better in the original French language than in the dubbed English. If you like techno music, you might actually find the music entertaining; I personally don’t know the first thing about it, but there was still one song in the climax of the film that I thoroughly enjoyed. 

For the most part, this is a high-octane movie that has a lot of masculine energy. Yet, the main characters that lead the investigation, the story, or even just the music are women. I found that quite interesting, but don’t worry, I’m not going to call it a feminist movie. That’s not what it sets out to be. It just delivers a simple story that occasionally feels just a little bit bland. It’s not that I was expecting it to be the most exciting movie of 2025 or deliver some crazy action sequences; if that’s what you came looking for, you’re not going to get it. There are a couple of high-energy, thrilling scenes, but they’re overpowered by the DJ sets that are littered through the film. I think, more than a comedy, this is a drama that hopes to keep you on your toes with its high BPM plot. This is not necessarily a bad thing; I mean, dramas can be thrilling, but it makes the movie a little bit confused. Then to add to that, it’s a bizarre comedy, with scenes that include naked men playing pool, just for the sake of it. I think it even misses the mark in its attempt at being absurd. 

In all honesty, the pulse of this movie lies in the father-daughter relationship between Luis and his kid, except it’s barely there. I don’t know if you’ve noticed this pattern, or if it even is a pattern, but lately a lot of movies have been focusing on this one relationship. I wonder if the dads writing these stories are missing their daughters (maybe they’ve just been up late watching Aftersun a little too often) or if they just think it’s a great story-telling tool that’ll keep the audiences engaged because it brings out a sensitive side to an otherwise bland story. 

What I quite enjoyed about this film is the charm with which Vincent Cassel navigates this story as a dad, DJ, and citizen agent. He’s like the metronome that keeps this movie on beat; without him, there’s no Banger. Aside from him, the rest of the cast also tries their very best to keep the almost boring script alive. It’s not that the story itself is boring; I just found it lacking for one coming out in 2025. Additionally, there isn’t actually much in the movie about the act of making music itself; sure, we see people talk about creating beats, but how does that come about? There’s one scene where there’s a siren in the background, and Scorpex turns it into a beat. In terms of direction, I was expecting maybe some interesting camera work and such to enjoy with the techno beats, but it didn’t really do much. 

There’s a little bit of a twist at the end of the film, which comes too little too late in my opinion. I do think that the film would’ve benefited from more action to match its fast beat, but unfortunately, it all shows up too late, and if I didn’t have to watch it to write this review, I may have skipped out on it not long after the first 15 minutes. Despite being a movie that feels like it would be perfect for someone with the attention span of a goldfish (i.e., people like me), it doesn’t actually deliver such a story. I did lose interest quite early on, and sometimes the pacing felt almost random to me, maybe because it’s trying too hard to be exciting. In truth, this movie is about old vs. new, but just as an old song can be remixed for a newer audience, the story parallels two young characters and gives us a different perspective from both of them, which was quite interesting. 

Also, if you do end up getting to the end of the movie, the credits are literally a “banger,” so don’t skip on that. No, really, they’ll send you on a trip for sure. At the end of the day, this isn’t a movie for everybody. I think it’s mostly just struggling to find its place in one particular genre, almost like the half-ish antagonist of the movie. I think with a little more refinement, it could’ve been an actually good movie. I’d give Banger 2.5 out of 5 stars.