The world needs a lot of things right now, and one of them just happens to be easygoing entertainment. So be grateful for “Banana Split,” a charming teen romance that fits neatly into the era of “Booksmart” but also manages to stand solidly on its own.
Cowriter Hannah Marks (“Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency”) also stars as April, a high-school senior in a long-term relationship with dim hottie Nick (Dylan Sprouse). Marks, cowriter Joey Power and director Benjamin Kasulke spend about five minutes introducing, capturing and ending this relationship, in a quick but clever montage that both fills us in and keeps us at a distance.
That detachment does leave a nagging hole in the story, because we never have the chance to become invested in this couple. But it’s also a purposeful choice: It soon becomes clear that the filmmakers have something other than romance in mind.
April is going to Boston for college, and Nick is staying in California, so their breakup was inevitable. But while she sits at home nursing her broken heart, he’s already found a new girlfriend in Clara (Liana Liberato, Hulu’s “Light as a Feather”). Naturally, the two girls have checked each other out on social media, and Clara quickly assumes the role of nemesis in April’s mind.
So April is stunned when they finally meet at a party, and the funny, impulsive Clara turns out to be her soul mate. Before long, they’re sneaking around behind Nick’s back to build a BFF connection that’s made for movies: drunken bowling, acid-laced road trips, popcorn-sharing movie nights.
As April keeps clarifying in amusing fashion, the relationship is purely platonic. But their bond also runs a lot deeper than the one either girl has shared with Nick.
Both Marks and Sprouse are in their late twenties, and it’ll take some suspension of disbelief to buy them as teens. It also doesn’t help that Sprouse either wasn’t given or wasn’t able to find anything interesting in the beautiful but utterly basic Nick. (Unfair as it is, some may have a hard time avoiding comparisons to his twin brother Cole, who’s perfected the emo high school crush on “Riverdale.”)
The supporting cast — including Addison Riecke as April’s foul-mouthed tween sister and Jessica Hecht as her deadpan mom — add a bit of depth but clearly exist, like everyone else, to serve our two heroines. Luke Spencer Roberts (“Fear the Walking Dead”) also suffers from an underwritten role as Nick’s best friend and the obligatory quirky fourth wheel.
That said, Marks and Liberato are a delight, equally appealing on their own and total #FriendshipGoals together. The two are close in real life and the strength of their chemistry is, ultimately, what makes the movie so special.
Director Kasulke has been a sought-after cinematographer for years, having worked on high-profile indies from Lynn Shelton (“Humpday”), Guy Maddin (“Brand Upon the Brain!”), and Greta Gerwig and Joe Swanberg (“Nights and Weekends”) among others. His experience and confidence are evident; no one would peg this as his directorial debut.
DP Darin Morgan keeps things looking polished on a limited budget, while he and Kasulke — and editor Brendan Walsh (“Between Two Ferns: The Movie”) — ably capture the script’s wry sensibility, tweaking familiar setups like fast-paced montages, packed house parties, and awkward family dinners. These scenes are deftly aided by music supervisor Marissa Gallien, whose feminist soundtrack expands to include Annie Hart’s synth-pop score, Brit punk from X-Ray Spex and Junglepussy’s pivotally unapologetic hip-hop.
Marks, who’s got several directorial gigs lined up, is definitely one to watch, and she and Power have filled their screenplay with shrewdly relatable moments. Plenty of viewers are likely to nod when April googles “anxiety vs actual heart attack,” while this critic was fully onboard from the moment she righteously refuses to serve a customer a hot dog at her movie theater concession job: He can have a soda and popcorn, or nothing. Moviegoing may not be a communal experience at the moment, but you’ve got one more worthwhile title to add to your streaming list. (Judgment-free snacks optional.)
10 Best Films of 2019, From 'Parasite' to 'The Irishman' (Photos)
Between the internet and impeachment hearings, there were certainly plenty of reasons to stay home in 2019, but those who ventured out to movie theaters (and enough people are still doing that to keep the industry alive, if somewhat besieged) were rewarded with a fascinating array of work, even if some of those films were produced by and destined for one streaming service or another. And while #FilmTwitter might have argued over the effects of Netflix on the filmgoing experience, several observers noted that the back-and-forth discussions about “The Irishman” and “Marriage Story” meant that the service was doing a lot to put adult-aimed dramas in front of viewers and into the public discourse. (The taking of sides in the Martin Scorsese vs. Marvel conflict, alas, continues with no end in sight.)
11-20 (alphabetically): “Charlie Says,” “Dolemite Is My Name,” “The Farewell,” “Fast Color,” "Long Shot," “The Nightingale,” “Non-Fiction,” “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” “We Have Always Lived in the Castle,” “Wild Nights with Emily”
10. “High Life” Director Claire Denis’ bleak vision of the future posits that mankind’s journey into outer space will be little more than an extension of the prison-industrial complex, with society’s “undesirables” shot out into the deep recesses of the universe where they can more easily be forgotten and neglected. It’s a dismal prospect that she nonetheless turns into captivating cinema.
9. “Her Smell” Elisabeth Moss devours the screen as a bad-girl rocker whose eventual implosion doesn’t rule out the possibility of redemption. Teaming once again with writer-director Alex Ross Perry, they create a lived-in vision of the ups and downs of stardom, with a low-key buzz of optimism that’s been missing from Perry’s brilliant and blistering previous films.
8. “Booksmart” There have been many one-crazy-night movies about high-schoolers going wild, but none of them have been quite like this witty and empathetic coming-of-age tale, directed by first-timer Olivia Wilde and featuring indelibly funny performances from Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever.
7. “3 Faces” Still technically under house arrest and forbidden to make films, Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi nonetheless continues to craft powerful tales about lives lived in repression, like this story of a director and a well-known star (Panahi and Behnaz Jafari play versions of themselves) who travel to a rural community to track down a young actress they fear may have committed suicide.
6. "Marriage Story" Noah Baumbach's scenes-from-a-divorce drama starring Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson (both giving searing performances) was insightful, funny, poignant, powerful and devastating in ways that felt human-sized and relatable, even as they played out in the LA/NYC nexus of showbiz life.
5. “Diane” Legendary character actor (and writer and director and musician) Mary Kay Place makes the most of a rare starring role, giving an unforgettable performance as a woman grappling with regrets and responsibilities. Writer-director Kent Jones makes an auspicious debut with this ice-flecked, intuitive drama, but it’s Place’s show all the way.
4. “Parasite” Bong Joon Ho’s blistering examination of lives pushed to extremes in late-stage capitalism takes one unpredictable turn after another, but winds up placing viewers squarely in Where We All Live Now.
3. “The Irishman” Martin Scorsese’s gangster sagas have always been stealth morality plays, in which the wages of sin are death or obsolescence, and he plunges into those ideas with this tale of a mob flunky (Robert De Niro is searing in the title role) who sacrifices his relationships (particularly with his daughter) for a warped sense of honor and duty.
2. “Pain and Glory” Visionary filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar looks inward at his own physical strife and fear of having to give up the work that he loves in this semi-autobiographical portrait of a director (Antonio Banderas, doing career-defining work) so hemmed in by physical, mental and emotional ailments that he’s unable to create.
1. “Little Women” Writer-director Greta Gerwig goes deep into an oft-adapted chestnut of American literature and crafts a tale of art and obsession, love and family, resilience and determination and, yes, feminism, finding new avenues of expression and artistry within the pages of the Louisa May Alcott novel. It’s the kind of sweeping film experience that feels grandly traditional and breathlessly contemporary, all at the same time.
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Decade in Review: “Marriage Story” and “Booksmart” rank among the year’s highlights
Between the internet and impeachment hearings, there were certainly plenty of reasons to stay home in 2019, but those who ventured out to movie theaters (and enough people are still doing that to keep the industry alive, if somewhat besieged) were rewarded with a fascinating array of work, even if some of those films were produced by and destined for one streaming service or another. And while #FilmTwitter might have argued over the effects of Netflix on the filmgoing experience, several observers noted that the back-and-forth discussions about “The Irishman” and “Marriage Story” meant that the service was doing a lot to put adult-aimed dramas in front of viewers and into the public discourse. (The taking of sides in the Martin Scorsese vs. Marvel conflict, alas, continues with no end in sight.)
