A veteran army medic struggles to find his way after the Iraq War in Directors Joe and Anthony Russo’s new drama, Cherry.
The Russo Brothers’ film tells the story of Cherry (Tom Holland), a college dropout with only one solid thing in his life -- his one true love, Emily (Ciara Bravo) -- who drifted into becoming an army medic in Iraq. But after he returns from the war with post-traumatic stress disorder, Cherry resorts to becoming a serial bank robber after his drug addiction puts him in debt.
On February 16, the Russo Brothers discussed the making of Cherry, in an online conversation moderated by DGA Past President Paris Barclay (Perfect Citizen).
During the conversation, they spoke about returning to their indie roots and budget. “We built our own company after we left Marvel. Part of the reason we did that was to make movies like this,” said Joe. Anthony continued, “By doing it independently, I think we ended up with a better budget than any other way. We had a really healthy budget for a movie as complicated as this. We did always think about this film as an epic and we wanted to deliver on that dimension of the experience and the character’s experience.”
The Russo Brothers’ other directorial credits include the feature films Avengers: Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain America: Civil War, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, You, Me and Dupree, Welcome to Collinwood and Pieces; and the movies for television The Council of Dads and Courtroom K. They have been members of the DGA since 2001.
You can listen to the Russo Brothers' Q&A by clicking the podcast episode embedded below. You can find more DGA podcast episodes here.
About the DGA Virtual Q&A Program
Mirroring the ever-popular DGA Membership Screening Q&A program in the virtual space, DGA Members can now learn more about films directly from the filmmakers in this series of livestreamed conversations.