Cherry Lemonade
2021 · 11m · United States
Directed by Aisha Ford
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, family
Tones: contemplative, tender
On a hot summer day in her neighborhood, eleven-year-old Phoenix sets out to buy a cherry lemonade Slurpee and learns something unexpected about her older brother.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
The premise reads like every coming-of-age summer day ever committed to film—kid wants a Slurpee, kid learns a life lesson—but I'm betting Ford finds a way to subvert the expected emotional landing, otherwise this doesn't exist in my pile.
An 11-minute study in restraint and neighborhood geography; the formal architecture of a single errand as a container for familial revelation sits squarely in the lineage of Chloé Zhao and similar observational work, measured and deliberate.
The real story here isn't the plot—it's whatever Ford chose to show us about the brother that rewires the whole film; I'm guessing it's a glance, a conversation overheard, or the decision to hold on Phoenix's face at the wrong moment, and that specificity is everything.
Reviews
The script does an excellent job of showing off the unique relationship shared between siblings. Writer and director Aisha Ford makes great use of time. The scenes between the two are powerful and filled with meaning.