Cherry
Starring: Tom Holland, Ciera Bravo, Jack Reynor, Forrest Goodluck
Directed By: Anthony Russo and Joe Russo
Rated: R
Forgive me for only reviewing one movie in March. I’ve been pretty busy lately but it’s time to get back to it! Today I’m here to review Apple TV’s latest original film, Cherry, or as stated in its initially confusing poster, Cherkk.
I’m obsessed with this poster for so many reasons. The chaotic capitalization of the letters. The way the movie is called “Cherry” but it absolutely says “Cherkk” here. This is the height of graphic design.
Listen, I could talk about that poster all day, but I guess it’s time to start discussing the movie itself.
Joe and Anthony Russo have stepped away from their comfort zone of Marvel comic book heroes (Avengers: Endgame, Captain America: The Winter Soldier) to adapt Cherry from a novel based on the life of Nico Walker to the big screen. The film follows the life of a military vet with extreme PTSD who struggles with drug addiction. Nico Walker has a compelling story to tell, but the way it’s adapted is questionable. To say it’s chaotic would be an understatement. If there’s one thing the Russo Brothers love to do, it is bombard you with approximately one million plot lines. They have a way of overwhelming an audience with SO much that you can’t help but feel exhausted.
Cherry is divided into chapters of life. College. Military. PTSD. Drug Addiction. Robbing Banks. You know the drill. It comes across as a Scorsese-wannabe film that throws the viewer in so many directions that you feel like you have whiplash in the middle of the almost 3-hour runtime.
There is an amazing tool in filmmaking called editing, and I am a staunch advocate. I wish the Russos were too. This movie would benefit from MAJOR editing changes. Parts of Cherry look like a mid-2000s music video instead of an actual movie. There are bizarre slow-motion moments that feel so disjointed, as if they were in the editing room thinking, “whoa, wouldn’t it be cool if we just had Tom Holland walking in slow motion in this restaurant set to a song from 1960?” Not really. Please cut at least 30 minutes of the movie.
Tom Holland is fine in the lead role. It’s far from the best work I’ve seen from him. The Russos do him a disservice by making him play a character that ages from a college student to a 40-year-old man. Holland consistently looks like a 19-year-old, so it’s impossible to take him seriously as someone who ages through the course of 21 years. The romantic subplot between Holland and Ciara Bravo ends up feeling hollow at its core. This is framed as a story about the deep dark side of addiction and PTSD (the real Nico Walker and his wife split up after a year of marriage.), but the film tries to give the audience a “love conquers all” narrative that doesn’t fit the tone. It’s bizarre and not even true to the original story.
I’ve been tough on Cherry, but I want to spare you from this experience. This is a tedious and chaotic film that begs to be taken seriously. It will leave you feeling bored throughout its overly long runtime.
My Rating: 4/10