Cherry

I remember seeing this a few years ago at a film festival. I found it interesting but it was kinda hard to hear what the narrator was saying. I also really liked the choice of coloring and lighting. It brought nuance to the romance. The majority of the film was mostly dim lit which made the romantic scene more powerful and effective mostly due to the cinematography.

The actors were fine with mostly inner monologue and closeups from the main character and both brought the awkwardness and silences pretty well. Not much to say as the dialogue was pretty simple and the actors being mediocre/good would most likely be because of the director's direction which is why I can't call it "great", however the main actor was naturally charming.

I really wanted to like this film due to the hype. I am a gay man; I love films about love relationships between beautiful men; I love films with minimum characters and lovely intimate settings; I am 'pro' art house films which are all about characters and take their time. But this didn't work. Firstly, it was really too dark to see. But my main problem was that the relationship between Cherry and Cig just didn't ring true. The film jumped straight into the subject, and we missed a lot of potential character development. OK, a few small things happened between them which were nice (e.g. The awkward silence). Nothing wrong with that! And Cherry is meant to be naive, finding himself etc. But then, he suddenly says to Cig that he needs to go, and Cig says okay - but there really hasn't been enough evidence of that building up. I do realize that this is a short film, restricting the amount of scenes we would be expected to see - well that made me struggle to see sincerity in this gorgeous bunch of nothingness. The acting on the other hand is really nice. The way he holds a close-up all throughout the film, showing a range of emotions, is very impressive indeed. I can remember so clearly what it was like at 19 having my first sexual encounter with another man (OK yes, 50 years ago) to kind of enjoy feeling sad and then elated about love and sex, and the talent shows that brilliantly. But they are not enough to save this film, and nor the beautiful imagery, that does such an excellent job of channelling Call Me By Your Name.

The importance of safe sex in some ways is quite under explored in the queer community so I think the message of this film was heartwarming & needed. It shows very surprising emotionally effective ways of how one might deal with the repercussions of their own mistakes.

There is quite a bit to uncover in this film. It feels very simple on the surface and both characters only talk to each other for a few seconds, but they both have quite a bit going on. The depth in Cherry's character and Cig's sorrow in the end was the biggest reason this film stood out to me so much - they weren't just two regular guys being romantic with each other. They both had their own struggles and the writing of the film showed several layers of love through these two characters.

It's also wonderfully shot with beautiful cinematography especially during the intimate moment in the flashback. The actors gave understated performances - it didn't really seem like performances to me and that I was actually watching two guys talking even if it just had minimum dialogue, I also thought the actor who played Cherry brought genuine innocence to the character.

Overall, "Cherry" is a strong short film with very simple but layered storytelling. It also had relatable characters, extremely well-done & understated acting and gorgeous cinematography.

Rating: 8.6/10 Grade: A- 👍🏻