Overview
- Directed by Julia Jackman and adapted from Isabel Greenberg’s graphic novel, the film stars Maika Monroe as Cherry and Emma Corrin as Hero, with Greenberg credited as an executive producer.
- Critics commend the ornate costumes, production design, and storybook visuals, while finding the overall execution and emotional pull underwhelming, with Variety saying the queer reframing lands more in concept than on screen.
- Reviewers say the adaptation blunts the comic’s harsher political and sexual confrontations, even as it keeps the Scheherazade-style motif of storytelling as resistance to a patriarchal order.
- Polygon highlights notable changes that soften key dynamics, including a more sympathetic Manfred and a portrayal of Cherry as genuinely naïve rather than strategically playing that role.
- The roughly 90-minute feature features Nicholas Galitzine, Amir El‑Masry, Felicity Jones, Richard E. Grant, Charli XCX, and Varada Sethu, with several reviews noting limited romantic chemistry and static pacing.