Cherry hits theaters on February 26, and on Apple TV+ on March 12.
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Avengers: Endgame’s Joe and Anthony Russo, who have now spent the majority of their filmmaking careers in the trenches of the MCU, switch gears for a sullen and sulky dive into the unwell mind of trauma and addiction in Cherry, featuring Marvel’s own friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, Tom Holland. But Holland’s riveting, anti-Peter Parker turn here isn’t enough to save Cherry from being a struggle to get through.
Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Nico Walker, Cherry tells the story of an introspective Holden Caulfield type, from a hard-knock area of Cleveland, who joins the army after a bad break-up only to wind up severely wrecked by his wartime experience overseas as a medic. He crash-lands back home, adorned in medals, with very few recourses other than to escape via heroin — and then bank robbery to support that horrific lifestyle loop.
The film itself is separated into named chapters, like a book, and that helps slice up the story into more digestible pieces, but it never fully prevents Cherry from falling into a repetitive rut of feelings and themes. Drug addiction is a heavy topic and films about it can be a thick wall to chisel through. Cherry doesn’t offer up anything new nor does it tighten its runtime for the sake of brevity. So the end result is, well, nothing you haven’t seen play out in other movies about maladjustment, anxiety, and drug use.
As mentioned, the acting is quite compelling here. Most of it falls squarely on Holland’s shoulders as he’s not only the lead but also the narrator and a fourth-wall breaker. Nothing happens here outside of Holland’s scope as he’s in practically every scene, and when he’s not in a moment his voice still looms over it.
Most of the sad-sack characters who orbit Holland’s unnamed character (though he’s supposed to be “Cherry”) feel overly quirky and ornamental, as they’re always viewed through his eyes and he’s a borderline sociopath. The one exception is Ciara Bravo’s Emily, Cherry’s long-suffering partner who winds up meeting his madness halfway and getting torn to pieces in the process. Bravo’s showing is a strong second here, but overall the film is still Holland’s clunky cart to pull.
The gimmicky entryway for Cherry is that it’s from the directors of some of Marvel’s most complicated, and rewarding, films, starring arguably the most likable MCU actor. But it’s a wholly different story and the MCU star is delivering the goods in an Oscar bait-ish role that’s a far cry from what most people are familiar with him doing.
Once you get through all that webbing (heh) though, there’s some really good stuff in Cherry that can exist on its own merit. It can, at times, offer up quiet devastation. It’s just that, all lined up, it’s a slog that needs a trim down. It’s ambitious, sure, but threading multiple stories together, each of which could be their own movie really makes for a lot of bad bloat.
Cherry certainly has a distinct vibe to it, which is sometimes darkly comedic, and it’s definitely a welcome and ambitious swerve for the Russos and Holland, as the latter says he never wants to stop playing Spider-Man but also wants to play someone other than a teenager (The Devil All the Time, Uncharted, etc), but the movie regurgitates a familiar story (several, in fact) while stretching things out to a sometimes unnerving degree.
The Alien franchise has invaded Fortnite, as both Ripley and the Xenomorph are now available for purchase.
Announced by The Fortnite Team, Ripley arrives with her Nostromo Crew Outfit variant and the Weyland-Yutani Cat Carrier, which comes complete with Jonesy the Cat.
The Xenomorph comes equipped with not only the Xenomorph Tail Back Bling, but also the Xeno Menace built-in Emote.
The Space Gear Bundle is another purchasable addition from the Alien universe, and includes the P-500 Power Loader Arm Pickaxe, the Cheyenne Dropship Glider, and a new emote that’s “bursting on the scene.”
Red Notice director, Rawson Marshall Thurber, has stepped in to replace David Leitch as the director fof The Division movie.
This news comes by way of Deadline, which reports Leitch, who is perhaps best known as the director of Deadpool 2, had to step down as director of Netflix’s Division movie due to scheduling conflicts with his current project, Bullet Train.
The Division stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain.
The story of this film is set to follow the general events of Ubisoft’s first Division game released in 2016, which follows Division agents activated to take back New York City after it is razed by a virus spread through paper money distributed on Black Friday.
Thurber’s Bad Version production company will produce the film alongside Ubisoft Film and Television, Leitch and Kelly McCormick’s 87North Productions, Gyllenhaal’s Nine Stories, and Chastain’s Freckle Films.
Did you know Netflix’s Bridgerton is a popular show? If not, you may have been living on another planet for the last few months. Nielsen released its latest streaming ratings this week, for the week of January 25 to January 31, and guess who’s on top?
Indeed, Bridgerton is once again the single most popular streaming program, though it finally dipped below one billion minutes streamed. Fate: The Winx Saga, a live-action adaptation of the Nickelodeon Winx Club series, comes in second. The math here can be deceptive; people streamed 936 million minutes of Bridgerton, and 918 million minutes of Fate: The Winx Saga. The thing to remember is that Bridgerton has been out for two full months, having released on December 25, 2020. Netflix’s dump-and-binge method of show releases often means that shows come and go quickly, but Bridgerton is staying strong. Bridgerton viewers between January 4 and January 10 streamed 1.6 billion minutes of the show. For comparison, Cobra Kai, which is still ranked third, dropped from 2.1 billion minutes for the week of January 4 to 568 million for the week of January 25. That’s still nothing to sneeze at, but it demonstrates how well Bridgerton is doing.
Netflix makes up all of the top ten streams but for one. Marvel Studios’ WandaVision on Disney+ ranked in at #5. But again, those numbers don’t tell the whole story. WandaVision only had four episodes out at the time (we didn’t even know yet who it had been All Along!), and Disney is releasing the show week by week rather than all at once. Disney+ is growing quickly, but also has far fewer subscribers when compared to Netflix. That all goes to suggest that a huge portion of Disney Plus’s 94 million subscribers are tuning in week to week to get the numbers up as high as they are with so few episodes and a traditional weekly release schedule.
The rest of the shows on the list are from Netflix. Blown Away, The Crown, Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer, Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, Longmire, and the Great British Baking Show round out the list.
Nielsen’s SVP of Product Strategy Brian Fuhrer points out in the company’s latest update that Netflix’s Bridgerton and The Crown make for an interesting comparison. Both are shows about British upper-crust and are steady members of Netflix’s recent top 10 lists. But for Bridgerton, Fuhrer states, the audience is three times more likely to be aged 18-34, and twice as likely to be African American viewers. Further, nearly a third of The Crown’s viewers watch Bridgerton, but only 8% of Bridgerton viewers watch The Crown.
On the list of acquired shows, things are mostly familar, with Criminal Minds and Grey’s Anatomy topping the list, but the Spanish-language show Marioposa de Barrio continues to perform well, standing out from the list of weekly streaming stalwarts. Other shows include New Girl, Supernatural, and children’s programming like Cocomelon.
Finally, in movies, Netflix once again owns the majority of the top list with The Next Three Days, The Dig, and Homefront, but Disney+ fares better thanks to the continued popularity of Moana and Frozen 2, and Pixar’s latest feature, Soul.
With Netflix planning to release 52+ movies throughout 2021 and Disney’s Marvel Studios ramping up its television production as it prepares to restart movie distribution, this list will be worth keeping an eye on as the year progresses. And once HBO Max starts its simultaneous release schedule, in which HBO Max subscribers will get access to Warner Bros.’ new theatrical films, such as Godzilla vs. Kong, day and date, we might even see that service appear in the top 10 again.
Housemarque’s Returnal is a new roguelike that leans into the developer’s pedigree for arcade-style shooters, yet it also has something to say about the effects of being trapped in isolation and in a perpetual cycle. Following an emergency landing on the planet Atropos, the game’s protagonist Selene finds herself stranded on a planet filled with ancient ruins and hostile monsters. After meeting her seemingly inevitable end, she re-awakens shortly after the crash, retaining memories of her past attempt at survival. Selene is forced to relive the day again and again until she can uncover why she’s trapped in a time loop, and why the strange world seems to have a growing attachment to its new visitor.
Ahead of its April 30 launch, I had the chance to view an extended preview of the game in action and also spoke with game director Harry Krueger and narrative director Gregory Louden about Returnal’s scope. During the preview, I noticed that Returnal adds a Metroid-style sense of action and exploration to its time-looping roguelike structure. I was surprised to see that the game uses its conceit to showcase Selene’s unsettling descent into a mysterious, sentient world that always seems to be two steps ahead of her.
Enter The Void
The roguelike sub-genre has seen a significant surge in recent years, and 2020’s Hades was a breakthrough that demonstrated that a meaningful and poignant story with a personable cast of characters can have an impact within a structure that is inherently random. Returnal operates in the same territory as Hades, and with each run, Selene not only expands her powers and knowledge of the planet Atropos, but it in turn reveals more about the protagonist’s past, even forcing her to confront visions and constructs that evoke memories of what she left behind before her arrival.
Returnal follows the familiar formula of a roguelike. At the start of each attempt–which presents a new procedurally generated layout for the planet–you’ll need to secure resources, power-ups, and boost Selene’s abilities in order to face increasingly more difficult enemies and make it to the end of your ‘run.’ You begin with a standard side-arm and basic abilities from Selene’s space-suit, but defeating elite monsters and unearthing hidden tombs will yield new alien weapons and buffs that greatly increase your chances of survival across the planet’s different zones. In some cases, you can find parasites that can attach themselves to Selene’s suit, adding in simultaneous buffs and debuffs to her stats.
The loop of Returnal takes some cues from classic Metroid. Each zone gradually unravels as you acquire more abilities and attention to detail with its unraveling plot that runs deeper with each attempt at escaping the planet. The look and design of Returnal give off similar vibes from sci-fi films like Prometheus and Solaris, by way of the time-bending action-thriller Edge of Tomorrow. Returnal’s design and aesthetic wears its cosmic horror influences on its sleeve, and while there’s an eerie atmosphere, there’s something still alluring about the journey. According to the game’s director, the themes that hinge on psychological horror were always at the forefront of the team’s mind.
Selene faces off against the Phrike, a boss that controls one of the zones of Atropos.
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“We have this theme of answering the “call of the void,” and that’s one of the many psychological elements that we are playing with throughout the game,” said Krueger. “In some ways, we think that the planet of Atropos is in many ways a character in itself. Every time that Selene dies, she re-awakens, and the planet is then entirely different. Is she starting to imagine some of these things, or is this planet just toying with her sanity? These are the kinds of questions and pathways that we’d like for players to take, leading to their own interpretations so that they can solve the puzzle and put together all the missing pieces as they play the game more. It was definitely a really exciting opportunity for us to be combining this multilayered narrative with our trademark and the gameplay values as well.”
Housemarque’s roguelike doesn’t deviate much from the established setup. Yet, Returnal’s gameplay does hinge on the twitch-reflexes found in their previous games, which gives this game a different cadence than most of its contemporaries. While some battles can be cleared with ease, the more challenging fights can turn into bullet-hell-style encounters, with enemies littering the battlefield with energy blasts and explosive orbs. During the extended gameplay demo, I watched Selene fight against a group of aliens that ambushed her after she found a secret room filled with old relics. During combat, the enemies fight in both ranged and close-quarters, and Selene will be able to evade attacks with her suit’s dashes and double jumps. While the end of each run kicks you back to the beginning, there are persistent upgrades that boost Selene’s abilities and give you a sense of progression in her journey.
Exploring The All-Knowing Planet
Scattered throughout the planet are bits of environmental storytelling and visions that reveal more about Atropos’ history and why it can reconfigure itself with each reset of the run. But there are also sets of audio logs to find, and they seem to be directly related to Selene’s journey. Selene can review these audio logs, which contain messages from herself from a possible past run, or from another attempt that has yet to happen. In one message, this alternate Selene describes killing a hostile version of herself, and she’s unsure if it’s another manifestation from the planet, or was a genuine Selene trying to survive like her. It’s an unnerving concept, and it highlights the unpredictable nature of exploring Atropos.
In one of the demo’s defining moments that really cemented the game’s focus on narrative, Seline encounters an unusual sight when exploring Atropos. After entering a new area, Selene spots an abnormal structure placed amongst the ruins of the alien landscape; an old two-story house. To us, it’s an old home that’s ordinary and has seen better days–but to Selene, it’s familiar. This house, along with other hallucinations and narrative events, are randomized with each run. After entering the house, the game transitions to a first-person view to focus more on exploring the home. Exploring the house gave me similar feelings to that of P.T., which slowly revealed more of Selene’s past trauma and anxieties. While there weren’t any jump scares, it still comes across as unsettling.Its closing sequence, which sees an unknown astronaut observing Selene at a distance, shows that there’s more to expect from these spaces in the coming runs.
Exploring more of Atropos will reveal the history of the planet, and what happened to those that lived there before your arrival.
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There’s a conscious effort to keep players on edge, even when they’ve gotten used to running and gunning throughout Returnal. According to Returnal’s narrative director, Housemarque plans to keep the mystery going for each subsequent run.
“Every time you play, the world changes: enemy positions, the environment, it adapts within the handcrafted levels that we have [created],” said Louden. “We also have the corpses you can find that basically have glimpses of both the future and the past that you can begin to decipher and understand. I’d say for us, how do we do this within a roguelike premise within a Housemarque game? It was something that we wanted to feel like it was new and fresh. Then, on top of that, have a story that survives repetition. Ideally, our goals were to create something mysterious and haunting. Haunting in a sense of not horror, but haunting in a sense that it’s a story you keep replaying in your mind and stays with you.”
Closing The Loop
As game director Harry Krueger stated, Returnal’s journey is about “answering the call of the void” to accomplish Selene’s main goal of ending the time-loop and escaping Atropos. I’ve personally found most roguelikes’ experience to be difficult to engage with, yet the alluring nature of Returnal’s larger mystery and its fast-paced combat does catch my interest. What I think is interesting about Returnal’s take, aside from looking like a cool and fun action roguelike, is that it’s using its time-loop conceit as a core narrative device.
How Selene contends with this loop and Atropos’ many variations is all up to you. Just when you get settled into one variation and defeat its boss, a new zone will open up. Towards the end of the demo, I saw a glimpse of the Crimson Wastes, a desert-like setting that’s far removed from the swamps Selene previously explored. Once you unlock zones, you can freely travel to them right at the beginning of the run without needing to complete the previous areas again. But according to the devs, simply unlocking all the zones and beating the bosses won’t complete the larger story. With death and rebirth being the continuing cycle, it will take more runs and defeats to piece together everything.
Housemarque’s Returnal is a significant departure from the developer’s previous 2D ‘bullet-hell’ games. Yet, it still leans into the developer’s experience with fast, twitch-based shooting to act as a means to highlight the terrifying nature of being trapped in a perpetual loop that’s on an alien world. It’s an interesting mix of concepts and themes, and it’s something that I hope will manage to stick the landing once it’s released on April 30.
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A major outage is impacting certain aspects of Xbox Live, preventing users from signing in. That is effectively locking people out of content and the ability to play games online–which is unfortunate timing with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Season 2 having just launched today.
Microsoft has already acknowledged the problem, with the Xbox Live status page highlighting an outage to multiple aspects of the service. On Twitter, it also provided an update, saying it’s investigating the issue:
We are aware that users may not be able to sign-in to Xbox Live at this time. Our teams are currently investigating to fix this issue. We will update here and on https://t.co/PzAdjUFMJj when we have more information to share!
A subsequent update noted that party chat and the ability to purchase content are also impacted, so there are a variety of Xbox Live-centric services that aren’t working correctly. There’s no word on exactly when things will get back to normal, although the status page does suggest a fix could be near.
State of Play came through with the reveal of new content for Final Fantasy 7 Remake. This includes new story content to introduce Yuffie and new character Sonon in what’s called Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Intergrade. PS5 owners will also get visual and performance improvements like better textures, visual effects, and 60fps gameplay. A few other features will be added to the game as well. The update and story content launch on June 10.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Intergrade
In a surprise reveal, the original Final Fantasy 7 character Yuffie will be making her Remake debut in new story content called Intergrade. She arrives in Midgar and teams up with another character named Sonon. They seem to have a close relationship and will be in a party together as you play through brand-new scenarios within Midgar.
PS5 Upgrade Details
All owners of FF7 Remake and a PlayStation 5 will be able to access the upgraded version of the game for free. This will include improved textures, higher frame rates, faster load times, and better visual effects. You’ll have two options: graphics optimization for 4K resolution and performance optimization that targets 60fps.
Other features will also be coming to FF7 Remake, including a photo mode, quality of life changes, and a new difficulty setting to let you focus on issuing commands without worrying about the real-time action, if you wish.
This story is developing.
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