Forbidden Fruits Review: Uneven, but seems destined for a cult following

PLOT: A woman (Lola Tung) gets a job at a high-end department store called Free Eden, which is run by a witchy cult of personality revolving around the mysterious Apple (Lili Reinhart), who demands obedience from her subjects.

REVIEW: Forbidden Fruits feels like the kind of film that will inevitably find some kind of cult following, even if mainstream success will elude it. It’s too inconsistent and uneven to work for a broad audience, but it’s also so strange and unapologetically what it is that some folks, particularly a younger female audience, may gravitate towards it once it hits Shudder after its theatrical run, which starts this Friday.

While somewhat being sold as a genre piece, Forbidden Fruits (produced by the great Diablo Cody of Jennifer’s Body) actually has more in common with movies like Heathers, Mean Girls or Jawbreaker in how it’s a critique of clique culture. What makes it unique is that rather than being set in a high school, it shows how this type of mentality can spring up anywhere — all it takes is one charismatic person and some willing subjects.

All of the action revolves around a ridiculously high-end fashion boutique named Free Eden. The place is staffed by a fashionable trio who have all named themselves after fruits, with Cherry (Victoria Pedretti) and Fig (Alexandra Shipp) in thrall to Lili Reinhart’s Apple, who has remade each woman in her own image. They dress the way she wants them to, and they follow her rules, which include them not being allowed to have boyfriends, or really much of their own agency, although she reframes it using a lot of femme-forward phraseology.

Enter Lola Tung’s Pumpkin, who, on the surface, seems like she wants to become one of the fruits, but has her own agenda at play. Unlike Fig and Cherry, she’s not easily steamrolled by Apple, who becomes suspicious of her motives, especially once she begins spending so much time with the store’s unseen, but dreaded, manager, Sharon.

For about 70% of the running time, I wondered why this was a Shudder release, as it doesn’t play out like a horror movie, but rather a Mean Girls-esque satire. Yet, in the last thirty minutes or so, it takes a pretty big swing, with it turning into more of a mystery and, unexpectedly, having some extreme gore moments towards the finale which are strong enough that by the time the first one hit, I got why Shudder had it and why it (narrowly) qualifies as a genre movie. Imagine if Jawbreaker or Mean Girls ended in a bloodbath and you have an inkling of where Forbidden Fruits goes.

While occasionally fun, with some sharp dialogue courtesy of writer Lily Houghton (who wrote the play this is based on) and co-writer/director Meredith Alloway, it takes a while for Forbidden Fruits to establish a good pace. It’s also very clear that Forbidden Fruits is based on a play, with most of the action contained in either Free Eden or the mall it’s housed in, which makes it feel a little claustrophobic.

The first half of the film is — at times — awkwardly staged, and perhaps most seriously of all, I never bought that Fig and Cherry would fall under Apple’s sway. While Reinhart is a great actress (she was terrific in Mubi’s Hal & Harper), she doesn’t have the presence needed to play someone I’d buy leading what’s essentially a cult-like clique. In Mean Girls, you buy people following around Rachel McAdams, and the same can be said for Rose McGowan in Jawbreaker. Reinhart, despite some twists later in the film, isn’t given enough of an edge. She comes off as too passive. It almost feels like she and Pedretti (or even Shipp) should have swapped roles, with her having the kind of hyper-stylized presence Reinhart doesn’t. They all seem too self-assured to let someone so low-key dictate their lives.

All that said, while Forbidden Fruits didn’t work for me, it’s also a movie that’s aimed at a different audience, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it eventually finds a niche audience who make it a cult hit. And, despite my problems with it, I must admit to being entertained by the outrageous and gory finale. It’s a mixed bag, but is still fairly watchable.

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