Forbidden Fruits is the messy, sapphic power fantasy we’ve been waiting for

Films like Heathers, Jawbreaker, and The Craft have long held a hallowed place in the hearts and imaginations of queer and sapphic folks. They’re the ultimate outsider fantasies, rich with dark humor, emotional catharsis, and, for lack of a better descriptor, an innate cuntiness that codes as queer, even if they aren’t textually so.

Forbidden Fruits, which arrives in theaters this weekend, is the latest of such works to enter that sorority of films, and its star, Lili Reinhart, who plays this film’s queen bee, is excited to bring this, well, very complicated exploration of feminine power, solidarity, and horizontal hostility to a new generation of women and queer folks.

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“I grew up watching Disney Channel at the same time as watching Jennifer’s Body and The Craft, and so it was like two completely opposite ends of the spectrum—but the messier side is always a lot more fascinating and real,” Reinhart tells PRIDE. “I feel like women want to see themselves represented on screen, obviously, always, and there is a lot of messiness that comes with just being a woman, but also figuring out where you belong."

Lili Reinhart and Lola Tung in Meredith Alloway’s Forbidden Fruits.Courtesy of Sabrina Lantos/IFC

In Forbidden Fruits, Reinhart stars as Apple, the unofficial assistant manager at the trendiest clothing store in the mall, Free Eden. She’s surrounded by her mall court it-girl crew of Fig, played by Alexandra Shipp, and Cherry, played by Victoria Pedretti. Together, they form not only the staff of a trendy shop, but an actual coven that secretly meets in the mall basement, built around girlboss feminism. This cozy little sisterhood is disrupted by the new girl, Pumpkin, played by Lola Tung, who insinuates herself first into a gig at Free Eden and then into the coven, where she begins pulling at the fragile threads of their performative sisterhood—and things escalate rapidly from there.

The film is hilarious, occasionally vicious, and a cutting satire of the faux feminism of modern girlbossing. With Meredith Alloway behind the camera, and co-writing the film with Lily Houghton, the critique feels knowing, like the call is coming from inside the house. Particularly when it delves into the tension between the desire to belong and the desire for individual social power.

The film asks: Can you have both? Can you have solidarity while also making a power play among your social circle?

Lola Tung, Victoria Pedretti, Alexandra Shipp, and Lili Reinhart in Meredith Alloway’s Forbidden Fruits.Courtesy of Sabrina Lantos/IFC

“I think one has to sacrifice the other if you want to belong, you can't be in a place of power, right? The playing field has to be equal on all parts, in order for everyone to fully feel like they belong,” Shipp tells PRIDE. “Otherwise, there's going to be this civil unrest of, well, what does Apple think? What does Apple want? You know what I mean? It's like, what do I want?”

It’s a question many women—not just high school–aged ones—can find themselves pondering, which is why Reinhart says moving this dynamic from the halls of high school into those of the workforce is particularly resonant.

“There’s nothing worse than being in middle school and trying to figure out your friend group or where you belong, and then it also just still happens in your adulthood and in your twenties,” she laments. “I feel like you see it in high school movies, like it's always very high school, but this is not high school—this is at a retail job when they're in their late twenties. And I think that's really interesting to see represented, because a lot of women feel that at any age. It’s not just a teenage problem… you’re always struggling with that.”

Lili Reinhart, Victoria Pedretti and Alexandra Shipp in Meredith Alloway’s Forbidden Fruits.Courtesy of Sabrina Lantos/IFC

The reaction from these women is acquiescence on the surface and rebellion underneath, which eventually boils over into… well, let’s call it women behaving badly, which is vicariously liberating for the audience but also for the stars themselves. For Tung, who serves as Apple’s chief antagonist in the film, getting to let it all go proved to be surprisingly satisfying for the actor.

“It’s also like a cathartic sort of release, because a lot of it—especially for me, I’m someone who's usually very kind and more contained, and I don’t want to stir the pot—but seeing women scream and yell and cry and have these really intense emotions, and even get super messy, feels really emotional, and also like a release that we don’t always get to have in real life,” Tung tells PRIDE. “I don’t know if I’ve ever heard my real scream before, because when do you get to do that? You know?”

Alexandra Shipp and Victoria Pedretti in Meredith Alloway’s Forbidden Fruits.Courtesy of Sabrina Lantos/IFC

But that kind of transgression isn’t just cathartic—according to Shipp, it’s what makes the film one that queer audiences will see themselves in. “I think also the queer aspect of it is that to be loud and to scream and to be raw and ‘messy’ as women is so rebellious and so punk—and I think so is being queer in a lot of ways, because you’re going against the grain,” she explains. “These films tend to have a big queer audience, because we celebrate the rebellion, we celebrate the punk of it always—and when films can be a little sapphic on top of it, that just makes it that much more… like everyone’s a little gay, you know?”

Forbidden Fruits is in theaters now. Check out the trailer below.