By Meredith Alloway’s FORBIDDEN FRUITS is somehow the first horror comedy that JENNIFER’S BODY screenwriter Diablo Cody has gotten to produce. Outrageous. Campy tales of beautiful women with supernatural gifts that are essentially BUFFY episodes without a slayer should’ve dominated the late aughts. We should be on the nostalgia cycle for them by now! Instead, it feels like they’ve only recently become actively sought out by Hollywood. This puts an undue amount of pressure on FRUITS to deliver an experience that won’t take 20 years to find its audience: something that will become an instant sleepover mainstay, if the kids still have those. In adapting her stage play “Of the woman came the beginning of sin, and through her we all die,” Alloway brings together all of the right ingredients for this brew to bubble. Four vibrant young actresses with something to prove, a kitschy shopping mall setting, interpersonal scandals with cutting, catty dialogue, and a healthy helping of gore are all present, yet FORBIDDEN FRUITS is never quite as inventive or fun as it is attempting to be. It’s lively, but disjointed, never quite figuring out what to do with its ensemble of potentially iconic characters.
FORBIDDEN FRUITS unfolds in a Texas shopping mall and follows four “Free Eden” employees who are in a coven. Apple (Lili Reinhart) is the domineering queen bee who demands to have final say over the lives of her three subordinates. Cherry (Victoria Pedretti) is anxiety-ridden enough to follow along, although Apple only rewards her with insults. Fig (Alexandra Shipp) moves a bit more in silence. She doesn’t just have secret affairs with men in dressing rooms like Cherry does, she’s got a secret boyfriend! Early on, Fig befriends Sister Salt’s employee Pumpkin (Lola Tung) and rolls her into the coven. There’s an open slot, since previous number four Pickle (Emma Chamberlain) has disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Pumpkin enthusiastically relishes the opportunity to make some new friends, but quickly becomes suspicious of what transgressions Apple’s controlling personality may be concealing.
If this film does become beloved, it’ll be because of the four fantastic leads and the army of stylists behind them. Lili Reinhart achieves a balance of glamorous and snide that at times recalls a young Emma Stone. Practically, one never wants to be in the same room as Apple. Yet she is so alluring that we completely understand why she’s been able to cultivate followers who fear her. Former Joe Goldberg target, Victoria Pedretti, channels 9 TO 5-era Dolly Parton with her bright blonde wig and bubbly Southern accent. Cherry is the goofball of the group, constantly saying what’s most awkward or out-of-place, but Pedretti is only grating her fellow Fruits. Incredibly endearing. Lola Tung nicely grounds everything as the audience avatar who ultimately tries to wrestle control of the group’s narrative away from Apple. Fig is a bit underwritten, so Alexandra Shipp doesn’t shine quite as much, but she certainly complements the group well with a handful of funny lines. Alloway and Lily Houghton’s screenplay is very generous to these actresses with its comedy, and everybody gets a handful of crowd-pleasing moments regardless of how well-developed their characters actually are.
FORBIDDEN FRUITS takes on a decidedly bold slice-of-life structure that likely felt more coherent on stage. Despite a relatively short runtime, each act is marked by a time jump to another season of the year. We’re expected to trust that some of the bonds and tensions between these women fester off-screen, but when we’re brought back in for the highlights, the transitions are often jarring. It is a film in a consistent state of almost arriving at the good part. We do get a relatively satisfying climax once a storm traps the Fruits inside the mall to sort out their grievances, but even those strong moments don’t land as well as they should. There is one major revelation in particular that comes out of absolutely nowhere; it changes all of the film’s emotional stakes, and we have barely more than a few minutes to process it as chaos erupts around us. I have to wonder if this might’ve fared better as a TV series in which each hour could’ve spotlighted a misadventure or tiff between the Fruits. These are such rich personalities, and Alloway clearly wants us to see them in many different lights to make the third act feel rough and messy.
I found that many folks at South By Southwest received FORBIDDEN FRUITS far more positively than me. Usually I would pay that no mind, but here I distinctly feel like the type of person who might’ve dismissed JENNIFER’S BODY at first glance. I struggled with the structure of this far too much to call it “good,” but I also cannot deny how much I laughed while it was on. Perhaps, in the heat of late-festival exhaustion, my mind received something novel as disjointed. As such, I could certainly see myself embracing FORBIDDEN FRUITS far more on a level-headed second viewing. It’s worth checking out to test out the vibe, especially since the final few minutes promise a follow-up that would include a stunt casting perfect enough to guarantee only sweeter fruits from here.
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