Cherry Pop
- Director: Assaad Yacoub
- Writer: Nick Landa
- Producer: Ghada Baradihi; Alex Lampsos
CGiii Comment
Please believe us...we so wanted to love this...as much as we loved the short film!
Sadly...it's that old short-film-becoming-a-feature demon raising its ugly head once again!
There's just not enough [good] material to fill the 80-minute runtime!
Having a narrator is always a risk...here, it was a risk taken too far! Why tell? When you can show! With all this drag queen royalty flouncing around...they are all more than capable of telling [and showing] their own stories...afterall, it's what they do for a living! They really didn't need to be over-directed...let them do what they do best, rather than bind them with a stodgy script and endless [directorial] notes!
Where the short film was snappy, sassy and sizzled from start to finish. The feature flounders and flails between the obvious crowd-pleasing set-pieces...which are, unfortunately, few and far between! Cherry Pop - the feature - is screaming out for some daft improvisation, hurtful heckling and some off-the-cuff hilarity.
The Lady ZaZa subplot...delete...it adds nothing, it goes nowhere. The straight boy [i.e. the leading 'lady']...why make him straight?!? A bizarre decision that kind of falls flat on its face...due to a couple of reasons...the absences of any on-screen charisma...and, camp! He's got to be the most un-camp [straight] drag queen ever to set foot on a stage...it was a good idea...but, make him the butt of the joke! Pun intended!
It really does sound as if we absolutely hated this film...we didn't! It's entertaining enough...but, the potential that it [obviously] had went untapped and that's just a crying-out shame!
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
Cherry Pop! is a crazy night in the life of a small local bar's drag show. It's about a newcomer struggling with being the outcast on his first night. And a legend coming to terms with life after her last night in drag. And it's about a bunch of other back-stabbing queens with their own problems who just plain can't stand each other. Even the stories of some of the patrons play a part in the chaos. Cherry Pop is a real-time roller coaster ride where you better be strapped up, tucked in, and ready to go!
Cast & Characters
Dina Shihabi as Cherry's Wife;
Henry Zaga as Brendan;
Steven Dehler as DJ Oscar;
Toccara Jones as Terry's Wife;
Carmit Bachar as Ariela's Mother;
Christopher Caldwell as Kitten Withawhip;
Matthew Sanderson as White Chocolate;
Shawn Patrick Clifford as Bar Patron;
Timothy Wilcots as Terry;
Leonel Claude as Bar Patron;
Dove Meir as Eric;
Lars Berge as The Cherry;
Katherine Stephens-Miller as Bar Patron;
Patrick Holt as Lady Zaza;
Nicole Fahel as Bar Patron