Movie Notes: Bananas

June 16th, 2009

Bananas

= 3 stars

Starring Woody Allen, Louise Lasser, Carlos Montalban
Directed by Woody Allen

Synopsis

Fielding Mellish (Woody Allen), a typically noncommittal American, meets activist Nancy (Louise Lasser) who spurs him to visit the Latin American country San Marcos, where he winds up joining a revolutionary force. Hilarity ensues.

The Good

Some very funny sequences based on male insecurity: Mellish nervously buys Orgasm magazine and is then roughed up on a subway by some leather jacketted thugs, one being a young Sylvester Stallone. Other funny bits are Allen’s indoctrination into the revolutionary force (culimating in a totally nutball deli order), and a very surreal courtroom scene.
The subject matter of Allen’s entire body of work are forming – sexual insecurity, romance in Manhattan, ruminations of life, love, and death, psychoanalysis, religious guilt, and pointed one-liners. That said, at this early stage, none of these themes are tackled in an effective or compelling way – it would take many years before Allen became an effective enough filmmaker to do so.

The Bad

Despite the political satire, this is just string of moderately amusing, nutball sight gags and slapstick comedy.
Occasionally drags – it takes a while before Mellish gets to San Marcos where the hilarity really begins, and several of the funny scenes run a bit long to where the jokes overstay their welcome.

Conclusion

While Bananas is a pretty funny flick in places and a notable improvement over Take The Money And Run, there’s little question this particular brand of nutball humor is better honed in subsequent films.

Next Woody Allen Movie: Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex
Previous Woody Allen Movie: Take The Money And Run

IMDB: Bananas
Wikipedia: Bananas
Rotten Tomatoes: Bananas

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