About Cherry

As someone who knows more than the average bear about the world of pornography, I'm always interested to see what "mainstream" films do with the subject. About Cherry, a recent film directed by Stephen Elliott, brings some fresh perspective to its story about a girl from Long Beach who heads to San Francisco to get into porn (it's usually the other way around, geographically speaking). It's not judgmental about its characters, and approaches adult films as a legitimate business. But it also seems to have no real reason for existing, as it's mostly a character study about characters who have no motivation.

Ashley Hinshaw plays Angelina, a bright teenage girl who has an alcoholic mother (Lili Taylor). Her rock musician boyfriend suggests she shoot some nude photos with a friend of his, and after declining, she ends up agreeing, probably for the money. Then, in a move that seems out of character for her, she packs up and leaves town with her platonic friend (Dev Patel) for Frisco. She starts working for an online porn outfit, and as a cocktail waitress in a strip club, where she meets a charming lawyer (James Franco).

While working for the porn company, one of the directors (Heather Graham), a lesbian in a serious relationship with a realtor, falls for her young model, who now calls herself Cherry.

This is somewhat interesting, in a cool, detached indie film sort of way. As I said, it's not judgmental and not at all sensational, such as when Hinshaw is interviewed by the woman at the porn company as professionally if it were a job as an administrative assistant. Being a film about porn, there is some sex, with Hinshaw showing off her naked body (oddly, Graham, who is naked in almost everything, shows nothing here).

But I just didn't get the point of the whole thing. If it isn't an expose about how the porn business chews up young women, is it about how porn empowers women? It could be, but we don't really don't understand why Hinshaw does it. I hate to be a wet blanket on a film that is not sanctimonious about porn, but if that was the intention, we needed to understand Hinshaw's motives much more clearly.

The film also seems aware of its own plot inconsistencies. Graham's girlfriend catches her looking at photos of Hinshaw, and Graham has to remind her that she shoots porn for a living. "Eight years together, and this is just dawning on you?" she asks, echoing the audience. Also, Franco, playing a character who hangs out in strip clubs, has a problem with a girlfriend doing porn. That, I'm afraid, is a hypocrisy that's much more authentic.