Like many teenage pregnancy stories before it, Cherry attempts to tackle the delicate issues facing potential mothers with an admittedly uneven approach.
**Part of our Saint Louis International Film Festival 2022 coverage**
The title character Cherry (played by Alex Trewhitt) works as a balloon clown (sorry magician, as she is quick to correct her friends in the film) who is having a bad day. As she gets fired from her job, she blurts out that she’s pregnant and thus starts the whirlwind of the next 48 hours as she must decide what she’s going to do with her child. Cherry spends the film at various locations around her hometown, reconnecting with old friends, her lover, her parents and siblings, as she attempts to process what’s happening without letting them know exactly what’s going on.
Where the film succeeds is with Cherry’s decisions and letting us see the fallout. While discussing options with her doctor and claiming that she was always careful, Cherry shows us that she doesn’t understand the basics of contraception. Combined with her lack of health insurance and the issues she faces to even be seen by a doctor, these scenes give us some insight not only into Cherry’s predicament but also the structural issues around her.
Sure, Cherry is very carefree and unfocused with her life, but the movie doesn’t make a judgment on this or attempt to point to that as the reason for her pregnancy (though when you hear her contraception method, many laughs were had in my screening). Rather, this story is more of a slice of life and using the pregnancy as a device forcing Cherry to confront what she’s been doing with her life.
This leads to some great conflicts between her skate team as they question where she’s been – even before the news of her pregnancy – giving us a glimpse that Cherry has been discontent for a while. Another key moment occurs between her mother and sister (cleverly set during Mother’s Day, while not feeling cheap when you get to that scene) which makes Cherry reconsider why she wants to tell anyone: what is she seeking by giving out that information.
As a whole, we learn about the life Cherry had before this moment – which was filled with a lot of fun and carefreeness – but also wasn’t gaining any traction or moving towards the things she really wanted.
However, as much as we get a sense of her past life, we don’t really get to see what those goals or dreams were. We only get some moments with her skate team and with other characters like her boyfriend (Dan Schultz), who considers giving up his aspirations to support her and the child. If the film had spent a bit more time with her crew so we could feel how important this goal was for her, it would have made the decision to drop it or continue more impactful.
Lastly, the mix of shooting style (which is mostly done handheld) and overall level of performances are incredibly loose. With a few long takes and minimal cuts for some conversations, it helps ground the film with the spirit of the character. In spots, it can make some scenes feel longer than they need to be or make weaker performances more noticeable, but the overall short runtime (1 hour 16 minutes) means that even these small imperfections don’t last for long
Conclusion:
Cherry is a solid “slice of life” type of film that doesn’t take itself too seriously, offering a complicated and at times humorous look at the current state of pregnancy and how a carefree person can find their way through the world.
Score: 6 out 10
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