Bananas (1971)

Bananas: Directed by Woody Allen. With Woody Allen, Louise Lasser, Carlos Montalbán, Nati Abascal. When a bumbling New Yorker is dumped by his activist girlfriend, he travels to a tiny Latin American nation and becomes involved in its latest rebellion.

“Bananas is like a cookie-batter of all of those early Woody Allen jokes all plopped into a bowl and shaken around. Itu0026#39;s a film loaded with political jokes, but without a direct focus aside from Cuba and dictators and the like. There are numerous sexual jokes, including one of Woodyu0026#39;s funniest scenes involving a magazine (the buying and holding on a subway, very silent comedy-like). And even Howard Cosell becomes an iconic figure in Woodyu0026#39;s comedy in the brilliant opening scenes. The plot is very loose, so if youu0026#39;re looking for that look elsewhere. Also, to put it mildly, some of the jokes may not work at all for some viewers of today. But itu0026#39;s the go-for-broke irreverence of the picture that has it still worth viewing today. Much of Woodyu0026#39;s own verbal bits are very good, but itu0026#39;s also worth to note how the physical comedy- while crude and a little off-key- also has a good ring to it. Unlike the directoru0026#39;s later films, you can still sense that heu0026#39;s trying to u0026#39;getu0026#39; how to make a film, and so in trying to do anything he can think of to get a laugh, of course, some of it doesnu0026#39;t work. For example, in Cuba the gag where the gargantuan pile of dung is carried down the stairs with the Lain music in the background gives a grin, but not as big a laugh as might be intended. Indeed, this might be Woodyu0026#39;s most u0026#39;immatureu0026#39; film, while still containing some of his more biting, satirical jabs at dictators and oddball politics. Woody would still have this wild, go-for-broke style of humor more akin to some of his quirkier short stories in other films of the early 70s. While this isnu0026#39;t as successful in that regard as Sleeper or Love and Death, Iu0026#39;d still watch it again if it was on TV; even the romantic subplot, undercooked in comparison with the rest of the more satirical stuff, is interesting.”