Review of About Cherry (2012) by Walter M — 04 Aug 2014

With her mother(Lili Taylor) being an alcoholic, 18-year old Angelina(Ashley Hinshaw) is left to take care of her younger sister Jojo(Maya Raines). At the same time, Angelina desperately wants to spread her wings and live her own life. But her job at a laundromat is not going to get her far. So, she poses nude for Vaughn(Ernest Waddell). That gets her the money for her and her friend Andrew(Dev Patel) to move to San Francisco. That's where she works as a waitress in a strip club where she meets Frances(James Franco).

Alternately erotic and chaste, "About Cherry" does admittedly suffer from a lack of focus at times. But it is also refreshing in it not being a garden variety cautionary tale. Rather, it is about somebody who is surrounded by cautionary tales. And it is a nice touch that the movie depicts a corner of the adult film industry as being both gay and female friendly. Out of all the surprises here, the biggest has to be the neat turn by none other than Heather Graham.