BEFORE: There used to be a game (or social experiment) that we played on the internet, the idea was to start at a random place on the web and determine how few links you could click on before you could find porn. A bit like that old game "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" which was really based on the game I played in college, called "The Coppola Connection", where you named co-stars or married partners until you got to Francis Ford Coppola. So the question here is, if you start with the most non-pornographic movie you can think of, let's say "Conclave", how many movie links does it take to get to something about porn? And the answer is three, based on my non-scientific system. "Conclave" links to "Strange Days" which links to "Henry Sugar" which links here. I think maybe I could have done it in two though.
Dev Patel carries over from "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More".
THE PLOT: A troubled young woman moves to San Francisco where she becomes involved in pornography and aligns herself with a cocaine-addicted lawyer.
AFTER: What we know about the adult movie industry is that it's very insular, everybody probably knows everybody else, even in the Biblical sense, and maybe it's a tight community but within it people are all trying to get ahead and succeed, so maybe there's a cut-throat element to it behind the scenes. And then during both the AIDS crisis and the COVID pandemic that industry really had to close their ranks, and people were sequestered and maybe didn't have much contact with the outside world while they went about their business during a very troubled time. Meanwhile the relationships between the participants probably became very complicated as they were all trying to keep their jobs. So, really, this film is just a gender-swapped "Conclave" if you think about it - and nun's habits are probably involved in both religion and porn.
This one plays out a bit like one of those "After-School Specials" they used to make - do they still make those? - about the dangers of running away from home and meeting up with the terrible people who make pornos, and what that can do to your life. Really, that's my story too, if you just substitute "animation" for "porn". In both cases people will get into your head and tell you how pretty or useful you are, and also give you a steady paycheck, and all you really need to do in return is work your ass off three days a week. I'm really only half-joking here because I was in that world of independent animation for 31 years, and after about 15 I kind of stopped getting a Christmas bonus, and then I stopped getting raises because the company was always short on money, and then I got to a point where I was cutting my hours down each week because it was either pay myself for 18 hours or pay the studio's overdue internet bill, and well, once the internet is cancelled you really don't have a company, do you?
Animation and porn have a few other things in common, too - technology came along a few times and changed simply everything, first with the internet and then with digital film production, and well, if you don't change with the times then you're officially a dinosaur and we all know what happened to them. I took on a second job a few years back at a second animation studio, and that's where I started to learn about digital files and the proper way to make subtitles and how to make a DCP, which had become the industry standard while the other guy was still drawing on paper and shooting on film. And then YouTube and streaming happened, and more people got left behind unless they were able to pivot. And for both industries, showing up at Comic-Con and other conventions became somewhat mandatory.
But let's get specific here, because if you're going to make a film about the people who make porn, it better be very exciting because we already have "Boogie Nights", which is set back in the 1970's of course, so perhaps an update is truly warranted. Yet somehow even set in 2012, "About Cherry" just doesn't feel like it represents that big jump forward. James Franco's character is very much like William H. Macy's character from "Boogie Nights", he just can't handle the fact that his girlfriend is making porn and therefore having sex with other people. Sure, we all say that we've evolved beyond petty jealousy, and women are free to do whatever they want with their bodies, but then once a woman starts putting that theory into practice, suddenly her boyfriend goes all Neanderthal possessive and can't imagine having sloppy seconds. Like, how exactly is this relationship going to work, going forward? Well, it probably isn't.
There are signs that this relationship probably can't be saved - Frances (Franco) doesn't show up for dinner when Angelina's mother and sister come to visit her. Sure, he says that his law meeting about the law case where they discussed law stuff ran very late, and he'll make it up to her. But is that really what happened, or was he having trouble dating a porn star that he met when she was a waitress at a strip club? Can buying her flowers one time possibly make up for the fact that he secretly didn't want to meet her family, because he probably feels that this could never be a serious relationship?
Meanwhile, Angelina also has to deal with her roommate and platonic bed-mate, Andrew, who drove her to San Francisco in the first place so he could work long hours in the bookstore for less pay and sleep next to her but never have sex with her. Sounds like a great deal to me, he gets to sleep next to a porn star, but, you know, also a terrible deal. When Angelina comes home late and finds Andrew pleasuring himself to one of her movies, that relationship probably can't be saved, either. But how long was Andrew expected to last, if he could always look at what he couldn't touch?
Because I watched "Eve's Bayou", I know that Cherry's step-father (or her mother's boyfriend, or whatever) is probably molesting her sister. Depicting a teen girl who is suddenly sullen and very quiet and pretending to have medical problems seems to be code for sexual abuse in these films, because that couldn't possibly be normal for a teen girl going through puberty.
Well, "About Cherry", congratulations for making pornography very problematic and almost boring. I guess that's one way to go with it - but surely there has to be some kind of upside, right? I mean, Angelina's in the movie business and now she's semi-famous, tell me she at least has some money set aside to send home to wherever she used to live. And she's got a new thing going with Margaret, her former director, who broke up with HER real-estate broker girlfriend, because she couldn't handle being with a porn star, either. It seems to be a real challenge, if I read between the lines here.
Another challenge is probably making a fictional film about porn stars successful, when we also have real porn which is available for free on the internet now and doesn't raise any complex issues about the lives and relationships of its actors. Considering "About Cherry" cost about $2.5 million to make and only took in $8,000 worldwise, I think I'm right on this point.
Directed by Stephen Elliott
Also starring Ashley Hinshaw (last seen in "LOL"), Lili Taylor (last seen in "Being Flynn"), Diane Farr, Jonny Weston (last seen in "Allegiant"), James Franco (last seen in "Whatever It Takes"), Heather Graham (last seen in "Love, Guaranteed"), Maya Donato, Vincent Palo, Elana Krausz, Isaac Fitzberald, Lorelei Lee, K. Lee, Princess Donna, Sensi Pearl, Michael Torres, Robert George Nelson, Viva Celso, Cully Fredricksen (last seen in "Milk"), James Anthony Cotton (last seen in "Made in America"), Nina Ljeti (last seen in "Zeroville"), Donald E. Lacy Jr., Nkechi, Ernest Waddell, Sarah Curtiss, Ben Simonetti, Nelson Lee (last seen in "Civil War"), Megan Boone, Karyn Hunt, Jordan Kessler, Momo Juniper Hurley, Mike Bessoni, Melissa Tan, Amy Huckabay, Patrick Alparone (last seen in "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work"), Dan Weiss, Tim Lewis, Windy Chien, Andy Miller, Veronica Valencia, Sean Thomas, Alexa Inkeles
RATING: 4 out of 10 lap dances
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