Film

Bananas!*

Name: Bananas!*
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2009
Cast: Byron Rosales Romero, Juan J. Dominguez, Duane Miller, Rick McKnight, David Delorenzo

Other titles called Bananas!*: the 1971 film.

Courtroom drama

A documentary following a Nicaraguan lawyer's David-versus-Goliath battle against Dole Food over a banned pesticide that sterilized banana workers. It's urgent, intimate courtroom drama that happens to be real. For anyone who believes documentation matters and corporations should answer for harm.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like documentaries that follow one stubborn lawyer through the grind of a case, where the real drama is in the people and the paperwork rather than in staged confrontation.

Skip it if you need a tight pace and a clear arc, since this is a loose, observational record of a long fight that can drift in stretches.

What it asks of you: Roughly an hour and a half of steady attention, mostly conversations and meetings, with an earnest, unhurried tone that rarely lightens.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Insider1999

Meticulous thriller about a whistleblower taking on Big Tobacco. Russell Crowe and Al Pacino anchor a story about evidence, courage, and what it costs to tell the truth. Perfectly constructed suspense.

But Feels like a procedural at times. Long stretches of meetings and depositions. The outcome won't shock anyone who lived through the case.

Erin Brockovich2000

Julia Roberts as a legal assistant fighting a corporation poisoning a town's water. Fast-paced, funny, and genuinely satisfying. Real case, real stakes, real triumph. Accessible and entertaining.

But More conventionally uplifting than reality usually allows. Roberts' charisma smooths some of the film's rougher edges. Slight feel of underdog triumph-candy.

The Trial of the Chicago 72020

Courtroom drama about a system tested by people who refused to be quiet. Sorkin's fast dialogue and ensemble cast make legal argument feel urgent. Angry and energized.

But Sacrifices nuance for momentum. Some viewers find the screenplay too clever for the stakes. Political alignment helps you enjoy it more.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Bananas!*

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Corporation2003

Both are investigations into how corporations externalize harm. Bananas! is one case; The Corporation is the pattern itself.

Documentary treating the corporation as a subject itself—diagnosing its psychology and pathology through experts, footage, and dark wit. Makes systemic harm tangible. Shifts how you see every business.

But Nearly two and a half hours. Accumulates horror without offering solutions. Left viewers angry and exhausted in 2003; probably still does.

A Civil Action1998

John Travolta as a lawyer draining his resources to fight corporate pollution. Grounded, unglamorous look at what litigation actually costs people. Quiet moral weight.

But Slower than the genre usually goes. Less satisfying ending than most legal dramas. Some find it deliberately anti-climactic.

Dark Waters2019

Mark Ruffalo methodically pursues DuPont over contamination spanning decades. Meticulous investigation becomes spiritual endurance test. Angry without shouting.

But Deliberately paced. The villainy is structural, not personal—no obvious villain to hiss at. Bleakness accumulates.

Spotlight2015

Boston Globe journalists unearth institutional horror. Ensemble cast, patient editing, the satisfaction of journalism done right. Proof that attention and persistence matter.

But Quiet and procedural. No dramatic confrontations. The horror is in what you realize, not in what you see.

All the President's Men1976

Woodward and Bernstein pursue Nixon. Archetypal investigation thriller that's held up perfectly. Phone calls and papers become mounting dread and electricity.

But 1970s pacing. Assumes you know the context. Methodical to the point of almost abstract.

The Constant Gardener2005

Ralph Fiennes pursues corporate pharmaceutical malfeasance in Africa. Gorgeous, urgent, and morally enraged. The personal and political fused into one tragedy.

But Sad in a way that doesn't resolve. Slow burn into heartbreak. Some find it deliberately punishing.

Silkwood1983

Meryl Streep as a nuclear plant worker exposing safety violations. Lived-in and angry. Character study wrapped in institutional critique. Streep is extraordinary.

But Episodic in structure. The ending is deliberately ambiguous about what it means. Some find that frustrating rather than powerful.

The Yes Men Fix the World2009

Both expose corporate wrongdoing, but one uses courtrooms and the other uses pranks. Different weapons, same enemy.

Activists impersonate corporations and expose their indifference through satire. Funny, clever, and radically optimistic about what you can change by speaking truth to power with a smile.

But High-concept prank activism that works best if you already sympathize. Some find it glib about serious subjects. Tonal whiplash between comedy and real harm.

The Milk of Sorrow2009

Both center on workers harmed by systems they didn't create. But where Bananas! is courtroom urgency, this is collective memory and inherited pain—same wound, different register entirely.

Peruvian film about inherited trauma in a post-atrocity society. Magical, strange, visually stunning. Not about resolution but about how harm echoes through generations. A poem about grief.

But Deliberately elliptical. Not narrative-driven. Requires patience and intuition. Some viewers find it impenetrably abstract. Subtitled, slow, uneasy to watch.