Cherry - Wanna Play?

I think this is the most shallow film I have ever seen. "About Cherry" is about a bunch of one dimensional people dealing with the most artificial, superficial problems imaginable. Angelina runs away from an alcoholic mom and dad to become...a porno star, yawn. The entire cast is soap opera beautiful, and the performances are mostly soap opera quality, with the exception of Dev Patel, who's talents are wasted in this bomb. How did he even wind up in this thing? James Franco, (who I greatly admire) will do anything for a laugh or a paycheck obviously. Here he plays a dope addict in lust with the porn actress, yawn. "About Cherry" is an indie film, gone horribly wrong. Obviously directed by a horny, younger man, judging by the amount of cheap nudity and (un)erotic lesbian story lines. There is not one moment of this film that feels real, and not one character that is remotely interesting or believable. But Cherry is hot and shows her boobs..a lot.

"About Cherry" does try hard to deliver, but it just doesn't punch hard enough to make a lasting mark.

The movie trots ahead at a fairly slow, but steady, pace, which makes the movie seem to go on for a very long time. Especially where there aren't any particular peak moments in the movie.

"About Cherry" is about a young girl who leaves her dysfunctional family behind and moves to San Francisco with her friend. Here in the new town she starts making pornography for a living and earns good money, without heeding the dark side of her job. With her family ties and friendships on the line, Cherry balances a fine line which could easily tip her over.

The story is average, although it is quite painted out in stereotypical aspects, and it is to the point where it starts to become a daytime soap show; alcoholism, pornographic business, drug abuse, family problems, and so forth.

The problem with "About Cherry" is the characters in the story, as they are unfathomably one-dimensional and just doesn't really show much personality or give you enough of them to make you care. You just sit throughout the entire movie with a shrug and occasional shake of the head.

Be warned that there is an excessive amount of nudity and sexual references in the movie, obviously as the movie does revolve around the pornographic industry. Personally, I didn't care much for it, because it was done to the point where it was too much, bordering on being softcore pornography at times.

Personally, I did find that most people in the movie did fair enough jobs with their given roles, but only a couple of them managed to stand out in the movie, and those were Dev Patel (playing Andrew), Heather Graham (playing Margaret) and Lili Taylor (playing Phyllis).

I am sure if you are fans of anyone in the movie, then you might find some greater enjoyment in this movie, or if you have some kind of fascination with the way the pornographic business works, then this might be something for you. But if you are watching this for entertainment, as I did, then you will not walk away with a 'wow' sensation, because the movie just doesn't rock the boat.

This is a movie that is trying to pick a more realistic approach with its drama and characters, with as a problem though that neither the drama or characters feel involving or realistic in any way.

I'm still a bit confused where the movie thought it was supposed to get its drama from. The premise of the movie does indeed let it sound like a heavy drama, in which an innocent young girl gets stuck into the world of drugs and porn but the problem with the movie is that none of the drama feels desperate in anyway. I don't even know why the girl got into porn in the first place. It was not like she had abusive parents, or was extremely poor and had no other prospects in life. In other words, there was just nothing miserable or hopeless about her life at all, so why does she decided to make such a drastic life changing decision? The movie is never really clear on it and lets stuff just happen, without letting it have an emotional impact neither.

So maybe her life starts spiraling down once she gets into porn? No, on the contrary actually. She has more money and friends than ever before, so what is the movie actually trying to do or say? Bottomline is that it's trying to be dramatic, without letting anything on the screen come across as dramatic. What a weird and terribly ineffective approach for a drama to take.

It's as if the movie itself also realized that it's drama and main character weren't really working out, since it decides to throw in a bunch of more characters, with each their own things going on. Some of it feels out of place, while some of it does indeed work out more interestingly. It gives the movie at least some variety.

So no, I actually didn't completely hated watching this movie but it still made me constantly go; what's the point of all of it and why am I watching this in the first place?

And the ending...well, it wraps things up but it doesn't ever reach a satisfying conclusion with anything. The movie just ends, without making it feel like everything is done with as well. The movie does indeed leave more questions than answers but on the other hand, you won't care enough about this movie or any of the characters to truly want to see all of the questions getting answered.

A mostly failed independent drama, that you real easily could do without.

5/10

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This is bad without being hilarious. There are some decent actors in this such as Dev Patel, Lily Taylor and perhaps even James Franco. But you're not seeing any good performances from them. It all feels like rehearsals or one take. There's a scene at the bar with the lead Ashley Winshaw and James Franco where I'm pretty sure she breaks and starts laughing but they just leave it in. I really doubt there was a script on this because scenes just play out they have an outline and just fill in the words. There's no subtlety whatsoever in how characters react or what happens. You feel very aware that it's just a checklist of story beats to get you to the end.

I will say there were a couple of moments where I saw a what a good movie about this subject could be. Her being in porn and dating outside of that would be a difficult thing to discuss and work through. Instead characters mostly react with disgust and there's no depth to the subject matter.

Perhaps a shame that there there are flashes of the director trying to convey a message of sorts. But this is certainly not the female version of Boogie Nights. It's just a goofy movie about a girl who wants to be in porn for no particular reason.

18 year old Angelina (Ashley Grace) sells naked pictures of herself to raise money to run away to San Francisco with her best friend Andrew (Dev Patel). She comes from a dysfunctional family and he's secretly in love with her. She gets involved with drug-addicted lawyer Frances (James Franco). Lesbian former porn actress Margaret (Heather Graham) recruits her to be in her film.

Ashley Hinshaw is a fashion model, and she has the acting skills to prove it. Overall the movie had no joy, no pace, no tension, no drama. There is one good scene with Dev Patel, but that's not enough to recommend this film.