Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
Cherry drifts from college dropout to army medic in Iraq—anchored only by his one true love, Emily. But after returning from the war with PTSD, his life spirals into drugs and crime as he struggles to find his place in the world.
Cherry is a visually ambitious adaptation that showcases Tom Holland in a genuinely transformative dramatic performance, and the Russo Brothers lean hard into stylistic flourishes — aspect ratio shifts, direct-address narration, vivid chapter titles — that make the cinematography a real standout. However, the episodic structure ultimately works against narrative cohesion; the film feels like several distinct movies loosely stitched together, and the emotional through-line loses momentum across its lengthy runtime. The ending in particular feels deflating and unresolved rather than earned, failing to pay off the considerable emotional investment built in earlier chapters. As a whole it's distinctive in execution if not entirely in conception — the PTSD-to-addiction pipeline is well-trodden territory — landing it as a flawed but visually and performance-driven ambitious effort.