Cherry (2021) review

A young man named Cherry (Tom Holland) goes from being a college student and falling in love with his girlfriend Emily (Ciara Bravo) to joining the Army, becoming a medic in the Iraq Occupation to coming home, becoming addicted to drugs and robbing banks.  It's mostly flavorless young adult material - based on Nico Walker's "semi"-autobiographical novel - that has all its inspirations (The Deer Hunter, Full Metal Jacket, The Hurt Locker, The Panic in Needle Park, Straight Time, etc.) displayed on its sleeve, but it never becomes its own unique, standalone entity: you've seen it all before in different places, and the Russos don't add much new to the narrative about the after-effects combat has on a human mind (the fingers aren't pointed in the right direction).  Still, I have to keep giving Holland a lot of praise for stepping outside his 'comfort zone' - like The Devil All the Time, he's not exactly suited for this type of material, but I'll be damned if he's not diving right in.