Cherry Review

This month, Apple TV+ will release its highest-profile movie yet with crime drama Cherry. It’s the latest project from the Russo Brothers, two of the most successful film directors in history.  This is why it’s fascinating to me that I don’t know what the Russo Brothers’ directing style is. These men directed countless acclaimed TV episodes on shows like Community and Arrested Development, created what is widely considered to be one of the best Marvel movies with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and helmed the highest-grossing film of all time with Avengers: Endgame. Yet while these are all entertaining pieces, we don’t get to see a common stylistic thread between them, which can create the impression that they’re just skilled “hired gun” directors, brought on to do what the studio wants. If this theory is true, then that would suggest a great deal of repressed stylized creativity bubbling under the surface of the two brothers, which, in turn, would explain the existence of Cherry, a film that places style above common sense. 

Based on the semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, the film tells the story of a young man (Tom Holland) as he devolves from an optimistic college student, to a troubled soldier, to an addict, and finally a bank robber. Following him down this road is his girlfriend Emily (Ciara Bravo), with whom he shares a turbulent relationship.  As the protagonist (seemingly named Cherry, although the name is never said out loud) descends down these dark paths, we follow his journey in a hyper-stylized manner, though given the weight of the subject matter, the tone often feels inappropriate. We are guests inside Cherry’s worldview, seeing the world through his warped lens as he breaks the fourth wall to explain his disturbing motivations, all while Forrest Gump-ing his way through early 2000’s history.  The Russos take every opportunity (and then some) to display a wide range of filming techniques and styles to tell this story: surrealist cutaways, bold angles, and rapid cut editing dominate the majority of the runtime. As unbelievable as it sounds, this heavy opioid epidemic drama has many, many silly visual gags peppered throughout, as if to suggest that our narrator Cherry has thrown in some jokes to help keep his story interesting. Given how unpredictably he behaves throughout the film, I suppose this is in keeping with his character, though that doesn’t make it any less jarring. I get the impression the directors were going for a Wolf of Wall Street vibe, where the bleak subject matter is presented by a narrator who turns every scene into a wild party. It almost works, but whereas Wolf of Wall Street was able to pull that off by presenting the main character as both the protagonist and villain of the story, Cherry seems to always want you rooting for Holland’s troubled young man.

The one thing that consistently works about Cherry is Tom Holland’s performance. He realistically and respectfully plays the scenes of war trauma-induced PTSD and heroin usage in a way that feels honest and not exploitative, with almost no trace of the lighthearted Spider-Man we know him to be. It turns out Tom Holland is an excellent actor. 

This film is bizarre. It strikes a tone unlike any other movie I’ve seen recently, for better and for worse. It’s great to see Holland and the Russos start making big, bold choices with their work. I just wish it was matched to a more consistent project, one which might have better fit the spirit of artistic chaos that this group clearly wanted to unleash.