Under the Cherry Moon

Warner Bros. | Release Date: July 2, 1986

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

36	METASCORE Generally unfavorable reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews

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Mixed:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Blake Goble

Like Prince’s music, perhaps this film is best taken in for its sensation and not its literal output. That, and the dialogue is just ridiculous. But Prince looks cool, owns his story’s loose ideology of churlish change, and stages some marvelously ornate shots. Read full review

Pat Graham

Prince's narcissism was easier to take than than that of his contemporaries Sylvester Stallone or Rob Lowe: he didn't regard the rest of the world as an insult to his estimable self. Read full review

David Ansen

Under the Cherry Moon is not recommended for seekers of good taste, but if you're looking for a giddy, outre night at the movies, Prince is your man. [21 Jul 1986, p.65]

Owen Gleiberman

It’s really Prince who’s the ingenue here. He engages in much mock-effeminate vamping, scampers around the French Riviera in outfits that would have humbled Liberace, and grants himself the most melodramatic death scene since Camille. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Shot in black-and-white in an attempt to evoke the sophisticated burr of '40s films, its intent is hamstrung by over-familiar gags, though the script comes more to life when Prince and Benton lapse into black street talk during their pursuit of moneyed women. Read full review

Tom Moon

It's a stylized, overdressed love story with music tacked on. It's a tangle of relationship studies that drag endlessly, slapstick "get the girl" scenes that aren't funny, and clashes with parental authority that only feign rebellion. [03 Jul 1986, p.D10]

Karen Hawkins

Not even the soundtrack can save Under the Cherry Moon . Read full review

Walter Goodman

For all those out there who can't get enough of Prince, Under the Cherry Moon may be just the antidote. Read full review

Jay Boyar

In Under the Cherry Moon, the self-styled auteur is obviously aiming for a romantic tragedy with occasional lighthearted moments. What he ends up with, however, is purest camp. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

In Under the Cherry Moon, Prince tries to direct too, giving himself a lot of closeups kissing but hardly any of him singing. What is left is a trite story about a rich girl and a poor musician (Prince) that's set on the Riviera and shot in, of all things, black and white. Read full review

Paul Attanasio

An unconscionable mess of unyielding crassness, from the overall tone, which celebrates gaucherie all the while it's saying that love is what really counts, to the sound mix, which makes most of the dialogue, which is larded with impenetrable slang, doubly impenetrable. [04 Jul 1986, p.C2]

Rita Kempley

Anarchistic, self-indulgent and monumentally self-obsessed. Read full review

Patrick Goldstein

A dismal flop that will probably be Exhibit A for years to come in any debate over the wisdom of letting pop stars make their own vanity Hollywood projects. [04 Jul 1986, p.7]

Nathan Rabin

There are elementary school playgrounds with substantially higher levels of verbal wit and intellectual discourse than Under The Cherry Room. Read full review

Lynn Van Matre

"We had fun, didn't we?" asks Prince at the end, just before he goes to heaven. It's nice that somebody did. [04 Jul 1986, p.3C]

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

As a director Prince doesn't show even a rudimentary sense of visual style, and his acting skills equal what his direction calls for. The whole film plays exactly for what it is, one long essay in ego massaging. Read full review