Forbidden Fruits (2026)

dir Meredith Alloway

Here we go again.

Upon second viewing, there’s two things at the forefront of my mind.

The first thing is that the wig they through on Lili Reinhart needed to be plucked sooooo bad. The whole thing wasn’t even that ugly! It’s just that no one bothered to prep the scalp like at all. Whatever happened to bleaching knots and plucking along the part and hairline to give a soft natural effect? The wig they put on Emma Chamberlain was 10x better than Apple’s and she was the main babe. Cruelty.

The second is a quote by Art Spiegelman, author of Maus, who says "Look, suffering doesn't make you better, it just makes you suffer!"

Isn’t that the ugly truth! You could endure all the pain in the world and still not end up with wisdom or empathy or maturity at all. Sometimes you’re just traumatized. This is the message that comes through loud and clear while watching Forbidden Fruits, the idea that our unfinished business drags along with us as long as we still have feelings left to process. Ugh. Just shoot me, right? I don’t think I’m allowed to say that these days, even jokingly, but har har har.

In Forbidden Fruits, we see Pumpkin and Fig deal with their shit onscreen, even when it’s sticky and complicated and involves emotional confrontation. We unfortunately see Pickle and Cherry bow down and let other people decide their fate for them. And then there’s Apple, who is loudly hurting but too stubborn to accept her reality. She’s broken but there’s nothing to do but force past it, which we see at the end when she ends up at another Free Eden to start it all over again. The cycle doesn’t end unless you end it…