e233. Is Under the Cherry Moon a bad movie?

Have you ever had a favorite movie, that you’ve loved since childhood and then all of a sudden as an adult you discover that other people don’t like that movie? In fact, it seems MOST people don’t like that movie. And then you question yourself. Is the movie any good? Have you been deluding yourself for decades? No… that cannot be! It is the children who are wrong! This was Mav’s experience with the 1986 Prince film Under the Cherry Moon. Although it makes no sense, somehow, inexplicably, this is a film that has a mere 36% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 36% on Metacritic. On today’s special episode, Mav is joined by fellow lifelong fan of the film, returning guest Christopher Bell, to convince first time viewers Monica and her friends Anna Baumgarten and Lindsay that Under the Cherry Moon is in fact a perfect movie and their childhoods were valid. We do a deep dive into a film classic and discuss how it uses nostalgic retro film noire and screwball comedy as a means of creating an extremely progressive queer positive race narrative that remains as powerful today as it was 36 years ago. If you’ve seen Under the Cherry Moon, or even if you haven’t listen and then let us know if we’ve convinced you in the comments below. Citations and Links: * This episode’s Call for Comments* “Under the Cherry Moon Shines Brighter in Retrospect” by Rachel Stewart* “Episode 250: Under the Cherry Moon” of How Did This Get Made* This Island Rod film review of Under the Cherry Moon* Watch Under the Cherry Moon on Amazon Prime Video or HBOMax* Check out Chris’s movie Luck* Check out Anna’s movie Disfluency * Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme* Follow Christopher Bell on Twitter: @DocChristopherB and listen to the archive of The Deconstruction Workers podcast* Follow Anna Baumgarten on instagram: @annabellabaum* Follow Mav on Twitter: @chrismaverick* Follow Monica on Instagram: @