Banana Split

What makes Banana Split, so astonishing is its story—written by the film’s star Hannah Marks and co-writer Joey Power. The script is fearless, and the four members of this love triangle (I know) are brilliantly created and well-developed characters.

Bolstered by a thoughtful script and beautifully authentic performances, Banana Split provides a fresh take on the coming-of-age romantic comedy.

Make it through the first 10 minutes. It’s just the film warming up. The rest of it flows.

Regardless of how far audience members are from their own post-high school, pre-college summer like these teens, there’s still truth and plenty of laughter here that feels specific to their experience yet universal to anyone who’s had a BFF.

There’s nothing deep in this Banana Split, nothing remotely moving or profound. But Marks (TV’s “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency”) and Liberato (“If I Stay”) let us believe these two would connect, push each other’s buttons and bruise each other, and in just that way — just not in the way the title implies.

Is Banana Split an empty indulgence or a comfortingly familiar confection? Probably both.

There is no law that says a movie like this has to be funny exactly, and it needn’t be something in the style of Booksmart – but there is something rather solemn about it.