FILM REVIEW: Cherri - "a low-key, offbeat Cuban drama"

Hello cinema lovers. Today's film opens with its lead character on a cloud with beautiful wings flapping in the glowing sunlight while eating a massive sandwich, a witty start to an interesting project. Cherri is a low-key, offbeat Cuban drama. An honest film about the joys and pitfalls of romantic obsession, featuring an effective performance by a lead actor with great range.

Juan Cherri (Juan Miguel Más) is an older, overweight, gay dance instructor in Havana who is tasked with choreographing an amateur ballet production at his weight-loss clinic. He's also caring for Luis (Roberto Díaz Gomar), his ailing long-term partner. They both live in a tired but grand old house, and Cherri is slowly selling the furniture for mysterious purposes. Complicating this interesting set-up is Tim (Noslen Sánchez). He's a young, handsome security guard whom Cherri crushes on hard despite all the signs telling him not to.

Director Fabián Suarez works with scant dialogue here. That could be seen as a bit of a risk. The film shows Cherri's life through quiet scenes of daily routine. Taking medication, bedside care, ballet rehearsals, and even regular visits from a sex worker. The movie tries to show that the burden of balancing romantic longing and familial duty is tough. The filmmakers shoot Havana with great affection. Beautifully lit buildings, Cherri's bath time ritual, hazy sunsets by the sea. The plot may be understated, but the camerawork is gorgeous.

This is, without doubt, a proudly queer film. Cherri's body is often shown naked and is treated as beautiful without being objectified. The single sex scene of the movie is, however, graphic and uncomfortable. Cherri is slapped, humiliated, and discarded, and Suarez doesn't soften the moment. The film understands that for some gay men, they experience desire and humiliation hand in hand as a fact of life. That's a really honest type of queer sexuality, and this movie gets major points for showing that.

As the movie progresses, Cherri's obsession with Tim borders on limerence, a heady, involuntary fixation that Cherri himself knows is foolhardy. His therapist, a fortune teller and even a close friend all try to counsel him to no avail. When Tim and Cherri finally properly talk, the scene lands so well because we've watched Cherri build toward this moment for 90 minutes.

Juan Miguel Más, in what must be a breakthrough role, gives a fine performance here. He moves and sways like a dancer at times. His facial expressions tell more of Cherri's plight than any dialogue possibly could. Tim is a much more remote figure; we never fully know him, which is also Cherri's experience; he's a figure of dreamlike obsession. In the silent role of Cherris' partner, Luis, Gomar brings presence to a character who could have easily become one-note. The scenes between Cherri and Luis are quite touching.

There are minor script problems. Cherri asks an interesting question. What happens when our hearts' desires are not met? We don't get that tidy a resolution. The finale offers a decisive conclusion, and that's the right call. The actors show real emotion and work really hard, but it's a little rushed. The subplot about the ballet show is mostly unnecessary, but it does show how accomplished and confident Cherri is in a world away from Tim.

Cherri is a thoughtful, charming, intimate film. For anyone who has even loved that beautiful, unattainable man and was left heartbroken, this is the movie that chronicles that path. a little cinematic gem that doesn't outstay its welcome. Highly recommended.

Cherri is scheduled for a digital release on 2 1April 2026.