Earnest, ambitious and pretty darned close to unwatchable, the 2021 drama “Cherry,” streaming on Apple TV+, is based on an autobiographical novel of the same name by Nico Walker.
A tale of a sensitive young man who careens from college heartbreak to military service in Iraq, drug addiction and bank robbery, “Cherry” unfolds almost entirely in the first person.
A dominant voice-over has long been considered a flaw in movies. It doesn’t work, unless it does, as it did in “Sunset Blvd.,” “Apocalypse Now” and “Goodfellas.” But even in those exceptions, the narration was used sparingly, mostly to explain things at the beginning before receding to allow the action to unfold.
Here the voice-over never stops, and the action jerks forward like a car with a broken clutch. Cherry (Tom Holland) begins talking, presumably from a prison cell, before the film’s many production credits end rolling. And even that initial confession is interrupted by a Van Morrison song, the first intrusive cinematic gimmick in a film consisting of little else.
“Cherry” is largely a series of tricky montages “explained” to us by the title character. By my rough count there isn’t even one dramatic scene (two or more characters doing something while exchanging dialogue) in the film’s first 10 minutes.
One can see how a story this ambitious with a character so sensitive might have made a good book. Or at least a popular one. And Holland shows frequent flashes of brilliance, bringing his confused Cherry to life.
Unfortunately, his performance is wasted on a character who never shuts up and a movie that never stops showing off. Breathtaking in its pretensions, “Cherry” is another good example of how good books heavily reliant on their narrator’s voice rarely result in good movies. It explains why so many “Great Gatsby” adaptations have missed the point. And why every day we should thank the literary gods that J.D. Salinger forbid any film rights to “A Catcher in the Rye.”
— I’ve long thought that reality television arrived only because it appealed to a generation all but raised on their parents’ video cameras. With every pageant, recital and soccer game captured in its entirety, the notion of surveillance as “entertainment” seemed natural.
Older viewers, whose childhood may have yielded a few minutes of shaky Super-8 footage, continued to see TV as a passive medium. “The Brady Bunch” was to be watched, not to be confused with real life.
Streaming on Hulu, “Kid 90” presents a hybrid of those two views. An edited compilation of Soleil Moon Frye’s personal videotapes, it shows her with friends (David Arquette, Balthazar Getty, Brian Austin Green, Stephen Dorff, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Harold Hunter, Justin Pierce, Danny Boy O’Connor, Jenny Lewis and Jonathan Brandis), a generation of child actors trying to act like “real,” “normal” kids and teenagers, even after their employment on shows like “Punky Brewster” and “Saved by the Bell” defined them as anything but.
— A controlling mother (Jennifer Garner) gives the kids 24 hours to set the agenda in the 2021 comedy “Yes Day,” streaming on Netflix.
— Streaming on Disney+, the 2021 documentary “Own the Room” follows five business students from all over the world competing in the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— Espionage can be torture on “The Blacklist” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
— “WWE Friday Night SmackDown” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG).
— Ewan McGregor stars as a grown-up Danny Torrance in the 2019 shocker “Doctor Sleep” (8 p.m., Cinemax), based on Stephen King’s novel, a sequel to “The Shining.”
— Curb appeal on “Blue Bloods” (10 p.m., CBS, TV-14).
CULT CHOICE
TCM unspools three masterpieces released months apart at the very beginning of American involvement in World War II: “The Maltese Falcon” (8 p.m., TV-PG); “Casablanca” (10 p.m., TV-PG) and “Citizen Kane” (midnight, TV-PG).
SERIES NOTES
Waiting to exhale on “MacGyver” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) … A kinder, gentler sausage on “Shark Tank” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) … Improvisations on “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” (8 p.m. CW, TV-14), followed by a repeat episode (8:30 p.m., TV-PG).
A killer gets her groove back on “Magnum P.I.” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-14) … “Dateline” (9 p.m., NBC) … “20/20” (9 p.m., ABC, r) … Illusionists audition on “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” (9 p.m., CW, TV-PG).
LATE NIGHT
Dr. Anthony Fauci visits “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (11:35 p.m., CBS) … Jimmy Fallon welcomes Nick Offerman, Hailey Bieber and Freddie Gibbs on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) … Sacha Baron Cohen, Wesley Snipes and Charlotte Lawrence appear on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (11:35 p.m., ABC, r).
David Spade, Jason Mantzoukas and Raghav Mehrotra visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC, r) … Salma Hayek, Owen Wilson and the Weeknd appear on “The Late Late Show With James Corden” (12:35 a.m., CBS, r).
