BANANA SPLIT (2026) Dances With Films NYC

This is the story of two people who are thrown together and through conversation begin to connect.

I’m not going to lie and tell you there is anything new about the set up, there isn’t. We’ve been here before. However the before wasn’t with these two characters so what we see is something new. I'm not just talking about the fact that the two characters are Asian American. Rather I'm just saying the the two people are not your typical couple. Their experiences and the ways they express them and interact is not the way most couples in films like the BEFORE series, or the films of Noah Baumbach or anything other Hollywood product would interact. 

Director Walter Kim's characters are much more organic. More importantly they feel apart of their world. They are moving through the settings of the film because they belong there, not in the case of say the BEFORE series because the director wanted great backgrounds, or in the case of a Baumbach film the director wanted to use the setting to say something. Instead Kim sets he tale of real people in a real world. The is apparent in the opening in Times Square, this is how some people interact in the crossroads of the world.

I love that Kim is not just either giving us a purely Asain American story (some directors forget to give us real characters beyond the main ones), nor a Hollywood story with Asain Characters, but is instead giving us a real story about real people in the real world. There are no cardboard cut outs that would be used as a short hand as you would see in other films. As I said the Times Square opening made me watch how the entire cast was being handled. Kim is giving us a film with real people everywhere which is something that makes the central story stronger because we can relate more to what is happening on screen. The fact that Kim can balance everyone in a film speaks volumes about his skill since most directors, no matter how good they are forget the world they have placed their characters in, and that isn't the case here. Giving us a real world for the two main characters to exist in makes them stronger.

The best thing I can say is that this film is good enough that I want to see what director Walter Kim does next because his deft  creation of a world and characters may seem simple but it speaks volumes about his understanding of the world and how best show it on screen.

This is a super little film and a great way to start off the new film year.

Recommended.