American Cherry (2023) User Reviews (2)

I did watch the movie...

[YayNayorMeh · 5/10 · 28 October 2023]

... but still don't think it's very good.

This is a film which is so clearly inspired by/a pastiche of American Beauty it's painful. Cod-philosophical musings on Vonnegut, Kafka, Soviet Sci-Fi and of course Death. A protagonist who films mundane things on VHS video tapes and calls it art. We don't need to see this kind of thing again.

I was attracted to this because the trailer made it look like a film where there would be some kind of mystery revolving arund the videos that are being made or at least the videos would be a major plot point or revelatory about the central relationship.

No.

What we have instead is a typical story of naive girl falling for bad boy with disasterous consequences. The VHS tapes that the protagonist films are barely part of the plot. Mostly an incredibly lazy excuse to have some "Deep" voice overs.

It's also worth pointing out that this film has a couple of issues that are common to low-budget film-making: a) Some of the acting is incredibly stilted and awkward b) The sound mixing is terrible. Many times through the course of the film dialogue is drowned ut by the sound design and/or score.

Overlooked Independent Gem

[millerian-02797 · 11 February 2024]

35mm malick induced southern gothic tale of the mental derangement found in senseless violence but in doomed romances as well, the beauty of simply shooting on film goes a long way to creating beauty & atmosphere, the simple shot of two lovers embracing each other is beautifully framed & elegantly lit, utilizing the history of 1970s film as a placeholder to creating something genuinely hypnotic, hart denton's performance speaks with the utter beauty in simplicity of performing, reaching back into the strong loveliness of actors from the 1970s, reminded me a certain amount of martin sheen in badlands, the mystifying beauty in his silences showcasing how a certain aura can make a performance even stronger underlining the utter mesmerizing aspect to every single tic to his delivery and facial expressions, marcella cytrynowicz as a first time director finding the hidden terrors but the utter brilliant ideas of framing & seeing the separation and closing together of two bodies, she lets each scene sit and wait, knowing the minutae and heartbreak that is in the scenes that play out, the script is filled also with wonderful, unique eccentricities that is has been completely removed from mainstream cinema, movies are never allowed to be weird or off-putting with big studios and here is a very small little movie finally embracing it and becoming an absorbing experience all the same.