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Cherry is being sold on the link between current Spider-Man Tom Holland and Avengers: Endgame sibling directors Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, but does it have the content to back it up for this new movie which is exclusive to Apple TV+?
The story begins in 2007, where Cherry’s (Tom Holland) life has got to the desperate point that he needs cash, and hits upon an idea to simply walk into a bank, queue up and hand the first teller he comes to a bank note on which he’s written, “I have a gun. This is a robbery”, expecting a ton of the readies in return.
What follows is a very detailed run-down of his life and experiences as it goes back to 2002 when he was at college and first meets the love of his life, Emily (Ciara Bravo), but she’s goes to live in Canada to continue her schooling, causing our lead to join the army, and making you wonder if they’ll ever get back together once this is all done, since she’s quite a bitch in the process. Plus, you’d think if they really wanted to be together forever, they’d start now by not moving away from each other.
After basic army training, during which he wants to become a media, there’s some great warzone scenes with sweeping camera shots – well, pretty much EVERY scene in this movie has sweeping camera shots, and he ‘gets his cherry popped’ when dealing with injuries in the field for the first time. In fact, I’d say this is an 18-certificate largely for some very grim war scenes when you see the aftermath that occurs.
However, Cherry suffers with PTSD on his return, leading to his addiction to prescription drugs, before going on to stronger things, and how that affects his life going forward, including the life of crime.
Some asides:
- Holland’s character occasionally talks to the camera while in the middle of a scene, which is a fairly well-used trope, but it works well here
- There’s a scene fairly early on with four of the cast in a car, the camera swinging around like I last saw used (to a greater degree) in Clive Owen’s dystopian drama, Children of Men – which made it look like they were all in the car as things happened all around them, but as the extras showed, the car roof was CGI and the cast ducked in and out of the car, to allow for the camera to swing round and get it all in one shot.
- The film is mostly shot in 2.39:1 – with occasional use of anamorphic convex squeeze in some shots, except for the army training scenes, which are in a rather odd 1.50:1 aspect ratio, and within the 2.39:1 ratio, so come across as window boxed on TV. The Russo Brothers shot both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame in 1.90:1 digital IMAX, producing a 2.39:1 cropped version for non-IMAX screens, although the stupid thing is that it’s the latter which is released on all home formats and not the opened-up version.
Overall, Cherry has some decent acting turns from both Holland Ms Bravo, although the drug addiction portrayal isn’t particularly convincing. It tells a decent tale and makes great use of the fairly long 140-minute running time, but it does run out of steam a bit towards the end, and seemed to have rather a ridiculous ending.
Cherry is on Apple TV+ from Friday March 12th, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
Check out the trailer below:
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 140 minutes
Release date: March 12th 2021
Studio: Apple TV+
Format: 2.39:1 (Anamorphic Hawk Scope, Redcode RAW (8K), Anamorphic Todd-AO 35, X-OCN ST (4K) (6K); some scenes 1.50:1
Rating: 7.5/10
Directors: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Producers: Jake Aust, Chris Castaldi, Jonathan Gray, Mike Larocca, Matthew Rhodes, Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Screenplay: Angela Russo-Otstot, Jessica Goldberg
Novel: Nico Walker
Music: Henry Jackman
Cast:
Cherry: Tom Holland
Emily: Ciara Bravo
Pills & Coke: Jack Reynor
Tommy: Michael Rispoli
Jimenez: Jeff Wahlberg
James Lightfoot: Forrest Goodluck
Cousin Joe: Michael Gandolfini
Black: Daniel R Hill
Arnold: Fionn O’Shea
Cheetah: Edward Kagutuzi
Lessing: Ola Orebiyi
Yuri: Sam Clemmett
Bautista: Kaine Zajaz
Roy: Kyle Harvey
Cherry’s Mom: Ann Russo
Sgt. North: Theo Barklem-Biggs
Sgt. Whomever: Pooch Hall
Rodgers: Leo Woodall
Drill Sgt. Cole: Nick J McNeil
Drill Sgt. Deco: Jose Pablo Cantillo
Drill Sgt. Murphy: Zac Zedalis
Drill Sgt. Masters: Damon Wayans Jr
1st Sgt. Hightower: Kristopher Wente
Staff Sgt Greene: Adam Long
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.