Cherry

4 out of 5 stars.

Cherry is a good crime drama film about a ptsd former army vet struggling with addiction. Strong performances by Ciara Bravo and Tom Holland. Powerful moving drama. For Anthony And Joe Russo next direction effort post Avengers films. Going back to the grounded serious drama roots.

What worked?

The plot was strong moving. Following Cherry (Tom Holland) whos feeling lost and wanting purpose. He fell in love with Emily (Ciara Bravo). When dealing with her wanting to move away. He joins the army. Going through boot camp and sent to Iraq. He faces loss and traumatic moments that changes him forever. Emily and him still keep in touch with there love for another. Once home, Emily notices Cherry is dealing with ptsd. His addiction with drugs becomes worse. Which leaves him struggling for money to robbing banks.

Great performances with the cast ensemble. Lead by Tom Holland and Ciara Bravo. From there moments of young love to dealing with addiction that over takes them both.

It is a powerful direction that does move at a pace with Cherrys college life. Meeting Emily. Than the military experiences. And his ptsd struggles. The film does build a strong emotional connection with the characters and there performances.

Henry Jackmans music score is also good with the film.

What did not work with the film?

The films narrative structure works until it breaks the fourth wall barrier which gives an uneven tone and style for this kind of film.

Overall, it is a good film to check out with a strong moving drama. And great performances.

Very briefly: Cherry is a brilliant movie and a fitting translation of the story of a real person. The pacing feels chaotic at times, compared to traditional movies, because real stories aren't paced like screenplays. The cinematography is nothing short of stunning, and most of the events are ugly to give a hint of the ugliness that is being translated from real life to a book and to a movie. Tom Holland once again flexes his range as an actor, and the Russo Brothers continue to elevate cinema. Ciara Bravo didn't have too much to do in the movie, but I personally believe she aced her tonally contradicting scenes.

There's a lot of critics out there. And a lot of them seem very keen to slate this as much as possible, beyond what seems objectively reasonable.

What I would say is this - ignore them all (good and bad) and make your own mind up. And remember this is very close to a true story, written by a man who fell down the darkest of holes having been failed by the systems and freedoms he swore to protect.

Cherry is just an ordinary guy. There's nothing remarkable about him. And the disordered start of this film (which I struggled with to be honest) reflects the erratic nature of his drifter existence.

As the film progresses the style falls into order and then back into disorder, reflecting the rollercoaster ride of Cherry's horrific wartime experience and descent into drug addiction as he struggles to erase what he saw. The Russo Brothers together with DOP Newton Thomas Sigel, use a range of clever tricks to put you in Cherry's boots. From colour tones to aspect ratios, it takes you from soft warm love to cold hard conditioning in an instant.

I personally really enjoyed these choices, and look forward to watching it again to see what other details I might have missed on first viewing. I understand some people might feel that there's too much movie going on, but it was more than fine for me (all personal taste I guess!).

The acting from Tom Holland is exemplary and, at times, frightening. I cannot think what it must have been like to have to go to those places to portray the pain and fear he did and he should be applauded for taking such a leap with this role - he will always carry the weight of Spider-Man on his shoulders but he should be at least respected for wanting to branch out into challenging roles such as this. Ciara Bravo was excellent too, although I think I would have liked a bit more character arc from her (not her fault of course). I thought the supporting cast did well too in their roles - none of them particularly likeable (Jeff Wahlberg's Jimenez a rare exception) as they support and enable Cherry's demise.

Overall, this is a movie which really stayed with me, it still does. It's eye-opening, it's desperately sad, and it's incredibly powerful.

I don't understand the low ratings. All this film does is show how much range Tom Holland and the Russo brothers have, that their not confined to the Marvel movies. Just watch and form your own opinion. Its good.

The movie was dark and hard, but it makes it up in great acting, cinematography and music that fits perfectly. The movie was rough and took effort to watch, but it was worth it.