Cherry

I’ll never know how to truly feel about this film  Part of that coming from the first time I watched it, which was with an old group of friends who kept making commentary throughout what was supposed to be an important viewing experience for me  I especially remember the scene where the army vehicle gets blown up and they show the charred remains of the soldiers and a friend said: “Crispy.” To make everyone laugh  I didn’t find it funny and wanted to stop watching it there so that I could watch it properly and experience it without outside influences  I should have because till this day, I dont know how I feel about this movie. The first viewing experience is so important  Enough about my rant  One thing I really like about this film is the way people are silhouetted in the beginning of the film compared to the end. In the beginning, Emily is one of the only important people in Cherrys life, everyone else doesn’t matter and is a silhouette, but at the end of the movie, the only person really silhouetted is Black. It’s interesting seeing how his perspective changes because of his life choices and that suddenly everyone becomes important  The slow motion mixed with an almost orchestral sound really reminds me of the film, The Fall (2009). I love that movie and I love that technique. I liked seeing it used here  I like that everything is really experienced through the senses. Whether auditory or visual or touch, we see how Cherry experiences the world, especially while high. I think the scene where he burns the toast is quite prominent because that smell probably reminded him of the charred soldiers and that’s why he got so upset  The tableaux’s are super cool. I like that a lot. It kind of reminds me of Euphoria, especially with the narration and the music  I really liked how the lighting would shift and change, highlighting certain characters and adding to that mystical feel  I love narration and forth wall breaking, I wish this film did more of that The asshole shot always catches me off guard, thank you brain for making me forget that so that I can go 😟 everytime it pops up on screen with each rewatch  The aspect ratio change is super cool. That paired with the massive red font is really nice. That also mixed with the fisheye lense makes everything feels super compacted and overwhelming  It makes everything feel like Cherrys worldview is being distorted  It was probably a bad idea to have been eating droewors during the “Get his guts in” scene  “Blood won’t come out of my wedding ring.” Is such an interesting way to show how Jimenez is inevitably changed by everything, and that no matter how his life would have been after the war, his marriage would never have been the same. Great way to show how Cherrys relationship also changes after the war I liked how in the beginning, I was looking at everything Cherry was doing and I was like “Wow, this guy is an asshole”  and then he went to the military and I was like “Wow, this guy is the only nice dude here.”  Overall, it is a very interesting film. I wish it was better than it is. There’s just something about it that doesn’t really hit, like there’s pieces missing to really make this leave an impact. Even as this film is quite long, it just doesn’t do what I wished it would.