“Cherry” Review

Story posted March 15, 2021 in Arts & Entertainment by Sam Roberts.

“Cherry,” which premiered on Apple TV+ on Friday, March 12, is a film about a war veteran whose PTSD sends him on a downward spiral of heroin and bank robberies. “Cherry” is directed by Anthony and Joe Russo and stars Tom Holland, who showcased a variety of skills throughout the film.

The film follows Holland’s character, listed as Cherry, who joins the army after his girlfriend leaves him to go to school in Montreal. He gets deployed to the Triangle of Death as a medic and experiences the horrors of war.

He comes home from war to his girlfriend, the same one who was going to leave him, and his severe PTSD leads him down a path of opium use.

His girlfriend Emily, played by Ciara Bravo, joins him on his path to addiction and their use of oxy eventually leads to an intense heroin addiction for the both of them. Addiction leads to the both of them being broke and going to Holland’s dealer, named Pills and Coke, for small loans of money.

The 2 of them steal a safe from Pills and Coke, filled with thousands of dollars’ worth of drugs, and end up flushing all the drugs down the toilet when they think police are at the door. After that, Cherry decides that the only way to pay Pills and Coke back is to start robbing banks, until Cherry gets arrested and goes to prison for 14 years.

“Cherry” has some good things throughout the film, and some not so good things as well. The highlight of the film is easily Holland’s performance as he displayed a character with an array of emotions.

He plays a boyfriend, a soldier, a drug addict, and a criminal and does a fine job at doing all 4.

The Russo brothers were also one of the few good things about the film as well. The camera work made the film intense, and they implemented creative elements into the story as well, like banks with fake names and the consistent use of the color red.

The Russo’s also really nailed the environment of war and brought a lot of realism to it as well.

What was really lacking in “Cherry” was the absence of a theme or lesson by the end of the film. When sitting through a 2-and-a-half-hour film, you hope all that character development leads to the main character learning a lesson by the end.

All of Cherry’s struggles in war and with drugs only lead him to make bad decisions and go to prison. Not only did Holland’s character lack some decent development, but every other character in the film had absolutely zero development and were all static characters.

The pacing of the film as also incredibly slow, and it really hurt the enjoyment of watching it. They spent way too much time on the events leading to Cherry joining the army and spent a lot of time on him in basic training and overseas.

When you get to the end and realize all that time was spent on very minimal character development, it seemed like a lot of the run time of the film was a waste.

“Cherry” is a decent film that does serve to entertain at the very least. It has a lot of thrilling scenes and Holland’s performance is the main reason to watch through to the end.

Unfortunately, “Cherry” is not a rewatchable film and being released on streaming is going to make it hard to attract audiences.

Rating: 2/5

Sam Roberts is a junior majoring in telecommunications. To contact him, email sam.robertspsu00@gmail.com.