Porn is all the rage in the independent film industry at the moment apparently as the Internet trips all over itself for anything new from the Amanda Seyfried-led Lovelace and now a trailer for Cherry arrives on the heels of its Berlin International Film Festival debut.
The film was co-written by pornstar Lorelei Lee and Stephen Elliott, the latter of which directs Ashley Hinshaw in the lead role as Angelina, a troubled young woman who moves to San Francisco, where she gets involved in pornography and aligns herself with a cocaine-addicted lawyer. The film co-stars James Franco, Dev Patel, Lili Taylor and Heather Graham.
Many of you will recognize Hinshaw as Casey, the weird girl in Chronicle who seemed to want to film everything no matter what was going on. As for this film, it currently doesn’t have domestic distribution, but I have to assume the fact it’s about porn and features Franco and Heather Graham, whose past as Rollergirl in Boogie Nights may spark some interest for audiences, will help the film some kind of small distribution, if only through IFC On Demand.
Looking at reviews out of Berlin, I see The Hollywood Reporter‘s David Rooney was none-too-impressed, summing it up writing, “Working from a screenplay of stunning superficiality, this attempt to shift preconceptions about the porn industry is neither provocative nor dramatically persuasive.”
Over at indieWire they enjoyed the opening moments the overall feature didn’t work as Eric Kohn writes, “While the character’s motives make sense, the movie as a whole struggles to understand them, setting Cherry on a downward slope to mediocrity and half-formed storytelling where even the supposedly enervating sex lacks any hint of joy.”
Personally, the trailer does absolutely nothing for me. The frame grab used for the video placeholder tells me really all I need to know before clicking. Featuring Hinshaw in a school girl outfit with her legs spread is enough to inform me that what is supposed to be a serious drama is now relying on sex to sell itself. Not a good sign and once you hit play things don’t really get much better.
