Review: Cherry

Cherry, directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, tells the tale of Cherry (Tom Holland), a college kid who suddenly falls in love with a girl in her class named Emily (Ciara Bravo). But after a misunderstanding in their relationship, Cherry joins the Army, where he suffers PTSD and develops an opioid addiction. Unable to financially support his addiction, Cherry resorts to robbing banks to get more drugs, further getting him and his girl into thinner ice.

This is the latest film from the Russo Brothers, who last directed some small indie movie I’m assuming not many heard about (I don’t know something involving rocks I think). The directorial duo are now back to follow up their modestly successful movie with a fairly ambitious project that unfortunately feels too ambitious for its own good. Cherry is a whole lotta movie that’s all style and no substance.

As evidenced by their last few films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Russo’s have a habit of making everything as big as possible, and this film serves as no exception. The problem is that it’s too big for the story that it’s trying to tell. Clocking in at a monstrous two and a half hours, there’s a lot of movie to digest here with not enough plot to justify it. There were many scenes that felt tedious to sit through because they just felt so long. The Russo’s direction was also kind of obnoxious throughout the film; there’s a lot of great cinematography and stylistic choices made in the film, but they get real distracting at times with some creative choices having no point outside of just being flashy.

Our main character is also not a very interesting character. Tom Holland gives a great performance that really showcases his ability to play someone other than Spider-Man, but his character in the film is just bare bones. It also doesn’t help that his narration gives us no real insight about the character that we couldn’t have figured out ourselves; the narration is only there to move the plot forward and remind us of things we already know.

Overall this film’s one heck of a slog to chug through. It’s not all bad, the performances were all great and there are some cool stylistic choices made, but there’s no meat in the story to justify its two and a half hour runtime. You might find something to like in it but ultimately you’re not missing out on much by choosing to skip this one.

Final Verdict: 4/10