If this first trailer for Cherry is to be believed, stumbling into a career in pornography is shockingly easy – all it takes is one dirtbag boyfriend and one impressionable teenage girl. In Cherry, Ashley Hinshaw (who you might recognize from Chronicle) takes a few dirty pictures for some pocket change, as encouraged by her skeezy boyfriend Jonny Weston, but her cash-grabbing photo shoots have an unexpected result – they allow her enough money to run off to San Francisco with her best friend (played by, of all people, Dev Patel). In the city by the bay, Hinshaw (obviously) ends up starring in fetish porn films, falls into a destructive relationship with a coked-up lawyer (played, of course, by James Franco), and apparently lies a lot. Without that marquee cast, Cherry would sound a lot like some classic After School Special material.
But while Cherry sounds a bit basic, it does come complete with an interesting pedigree – it’s directed and co-written by first-time filmmaker Stephen Elliot, a former sex worker and author most famous for his lauded book “The Adderall Diaries.” The film also marks Elliot’s co-writer Lorelei Lee‘s first foray into screenwriting, though she has an extensive list of starring roles in various pornos, all complete with titles I can’t list here, because this is a family site. Check out the trailer for Cherry after the break, hopefully after you nix any plans for your own porno career.
“Cherry is about Angelina (Ashley Hinshaw), an 18-year-old girl on the verge of finishing high school. Angelina’s family life is difficult. Her mother (Lili Taylor) is an alcoholic and her step-father is violent and unpredictable. One morning her boyfriend (Jonny Weston) suggests she take naked pictures for money. She balks at first but then does the photo shoot, using the money to run-off with her best friend (Dev Patel) to San Francisco. In San Francisco, while cocktailing in a strip club, Angelina meets Frances (James Franco) a well-off lawyer who offers to introduce her to a different kind of world, a place full of expensive dresses and fancy parties. But that world is not as perfect as it first appears and Frances has problems of his own. At the same time Angelina, using the moniker Cherry, has begun exploring the San Francisco porn industry under the direction of Margaret (Heather Graham) a former performer turned adult film director.”
Cherry premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, but a little bunny tells me that our own Cole Abaius might have missed this one. The film has yet to be picked up for U.S. release, but with Franco’s name on this one, that likely won’t hold for too long. [via FirstShowing]