Cherry (Joe & Anthony Russo, 2021)

Discussions of specific films and franchises.
Message
Author
User avatar
Mr Sausage
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:02 pm
Location: Canada

Cherry (Joe & Anthony Russo, 2021)

#26 Post by Mr Sausage » Sat Apr 03, 2021 2:02 pm

RItrovataBlu wrote:And very few first films have been greeted with the kind of expectations foisted on this one. So it's understandable that the result would be the product of a rare blend of hubris and creative confusion. I'm not an Apple+ subscriber, but my fondness for artistic trainwrecks has piqued my interest in this fiasco
The movie doesn't work fundamentally because the directors aren't in control of the material. There is such a need to impress the audience with their own filmmaking chops that the movie is overstuffed to breaking with endless style. It's Michael Bay syndrome. Every moment is double underlined. The most consistent feeling you get is one of falseness; none of the emotions seem to be coming from the story or the characters; the style gets in away of everything. The endless overbearing music, lense filters, expressive lighting, odd angles, and complicated camera movements are doing all the heavy lifting to the point where they, rather than the material, seem the point. So the actual material, despite being rather heavy, comes across as glib. This isn't helped by the material itself often being rather glib, like it's trying to mitigate its grimness by being jokey deliberately at inappropriate moments. The movie doesn't handle complex tones well because it overplays all its emotional beats.

Some stuff works here and there, like many of the PTSD scenes in the middle half, or the absurdist fakery of army training, but in the main drug addiction, codependency, social inequality, and the horrors of war don't appear to mean much to the filmmakers. Nothing here is deeply felt. The movie is an exercise in expression, and these subjects just happen to be the topics at hand. Funnily, the movie is emptier than the Russos’ MCU movies and less in control.

The movie's not really a train wreck because it doesn't go high enough to fail that spectacularly. It's a failure of the banal kind, where everything is familiar and nothing is persuasive and there's a streak of bad taste to put you off but also alleviate your boredom. Watch and forget.

Post Reply