About Cherry (2012)

Genre

Drama

Director

Stephen Elliott

County

USA

Cast

Ashley Hinshaw, James Franco, Dev Patel, Heather Graham, Lili Taylor, Diane Farr, Megan Boone, Vincent Palo, Jonny Weston, Ernest Waddell, Sensi Pearl, Maya Raines, Michael Manuel Torres

Storyline

With an alcoholic mother (Lili Taylor) and a violent father (Michael Manuel Torres), 18-year-old Angelina (Ashely Hinshaw) runs off with her best friend (Dev Patel) to San Francisco. There, while cocktailing in a strip club, she meets Frances (James Franco), a lawyer who offers to introdice her to a different kind of world. At the same time she, using the moniker Cherry, has begun exploring the porn industry ynder the direction of Margaret (Heather Graham). 

Opinion

I still don't understand why I keep on watching James Franco's new films, since he got involved in pretty bad movies lately, this one making no exception.

Shallow and without focus, About Cherry is one of those films that shouldn't have been shot in the first place. 

Everything is awful in this film. Stephen Elliott's directorial debut is so bad, you'd rather die than watch his next feature. The shaking camera is hella annoying, and the editing is so bad, it makes the film painful to watch.

The worst part is the screenplay, since Elliott co-wrote it with real-life porn star Lorelei Lee. Isn't she supposed to know how to write a damn script about porn? 

The plot is basically non-existent. The dialogue is horrible. And the film is completely unable to maintain focus on something, or somebody. Lots of secondary characters are in the film, but at the same time they are not there - what's the point of bringing out Paco's sexual orientation if it's not explored at all?

Angelina's transition isn't much believable. It's kinda off topic, but in Transamerica - you have seen it, right? - Felicity Huffman's son dreams to work in the porn industry since always. Here, Angelina goes from being a good girl who feels uncomfortable when doing a nude photo shoot, to porn star without any inhibitions nor sexual preferences, proud of her job - not to mention the change of sexual orientation - so fast you won't even have time to winkle. Also, in her rise in the porn industry, she does meet with no obstacle, everybody loves her - and I don't really think everyone's so friendly in real life. Furthermore, why does she do it? For the money like Isabelle in Young & Beautiful? Maybe at first. Then it's more than clear that she loves doing it, but unfortunately there is no inner character development that could lead us into thinking that. 

The acting doesn't get better. Ashley Hinshaw delivers an hollow and emotionless performance. James Franco is so not believable, and when he says, "Your job is disgusting. What you do is disgusting. You are disgusting." looks like an old pervert offerings "candies" to a kid. Heather Graham is pretty decent as Margaret, a porn director. Dev Patel badly plays his clichéd character.