In May of last year we first learned about Cherry, a low budget drama surrounding one woman's journey into the porn industry, directed and co-written by Stephen Elliott. Along with having porn star Lorelei Lee as a writer on the film, no doubt pulling from some of her own experiences, the most intriguing thing about it was the talent they managed to snag to star. The ever present James Franco, Dev Patel(Slumdog Millionaire), Lili Taylor(Six Feet Under), and Heather Graham were all aboard, with newcomer Ashley Hinshaw in the lead role.
The first trailer has been released for the film, and appears to be exploring some of the same themes we've seen in Boogie Nights and The Girlfriend Experience. Such as whether or not porn is exploitation of women or a means for them to express their feminist power. Porn is a female dominated industry, after all. Hinshaw plays Angelina, a young woman who travels to San Francisco to become a part of the porn lifestyle, and finds herself surrounded by a number of people who influence her way of thinking. Franco plays a drug addicted lawyer she gets in close with, while it's worth a chuckle watching Graham, who played the naive Roller Girl in Boogie Nights, as a veteran director who seems to be steering Angelina in a specific direction. Is this a positive or a negative portrayal of the world of porn? It's kind of hard to tell here, but I'm more than willing to find out.
Cherry doesn't have distribution yet, but with Franco on board somebody will pick it up. Check out the trailer below....
