Cherry is a new move on Apple TV+. It’s the (mostly?) true story of a down-on-his-luck guy who joins the military and rotates back home with PTSD and a drug addition. And there were two very bad things that happened while watching it that pretty much doomed it for me.
1. During the opening scenes, I was kind of digging the neo-noire, tough guy vibe of the narration. I was thinking this was going to be a kind of throwback noire film of some kind. But no… turns out I was giving the movie and its tin-ear dialog too much credit.
2. Once its revealed what this movie is actual about – addiction – I rolled my eyes hard and thought to myself, “Oh, this movie again.” And since this movie again didn’t do anything interesting with the addict movie genre, it pretty much plummeted into the ground.
I hadn’t seen any trailer so maybe it was my mistake for going into the movie without any preconceived notions. I was surprised it turned into a war movie and was equally surprised when it turned into an addiction story. Maybe if I’d known in advance, I wouldn’t have been quite so cranky. But I was.
Because this movie tries way too hard to be clever in its tough guy, cynical dialog and it tries way too hard to look edgy and be visually distinct. It needs to tone all that down before it can actually analyze its script and figure that they were trying too hard there, perhaps.
The biggest problem with the addiction storyline isn’t so much that it’s been done before – there’s always room for a unique take – but because the druggie acting was just bad. Not just from Tom Holland but mainly from the otherwise adorable Ciara Bravo. I think she’s bright and talented but wasn’t up for the gritty, dirty requirements of this part. And she wasn’t helped by a script that couldn’t convince me that she’d join Holland in his descent.
I think this movie meant well and that Holland is really trying to steer clear from the teen heartthrob thing. I think he’s got it in him to be a serious actor and I’d love to see Bravo in other parts. I just got tired of this movie’s gimmicks and its kind of otherwise generic plot. Probably didn’t help that I didn’t think it earned its bleak cynicism through tired ‘edgy’ narration tropes.
Score: 68