About Cherry (Blu-ray)

About Cherry is a pretty sad movie, I think. Not sad in the usual way, though. It's about a girl played by Ashley Hinshaw that enters the porn business because she's looking for a successful career choice as well as a way to make some quick and easy cash. Working in porn -depending on the photo or movie shoot- can reward the actress anywhere from $500-1,000. To a young aspiring young actress, that's a LOT of money. She can't resist. We see the part that I was most curious about- when she first walks into a porn studio and fills out the job application. I've always had a curiosity what kind of questions they ask the girl... and as I'd feared, they're pretty blunt and direct sexual-related questions. Still, it's not enough to discourage Ashley to just walk away. She continues on.
Unfortunately the actress in this movie doesn't realize that what she's doing is widely considered inappropriate to everyone in her life. Her friends, mom, boyfriend... they all want to drill the message into her head that what she's doing is disgusting and wrong, and that when surrounded by people who care deeply about her, she shouldn't be doing it. These people appreciate Ashley for who she is but... she apparently doesn't realize it. She's so determined to become a legitimate actress plus getting a generous paycheck for participating in the sexual acts, that she doesn't seem to care what anyone else thinks. She's unaware that the people who care about her don't agree with her career decisions. The boyfriend screaming "It's DISGUSTING!" during one particular scene is a highlight. He says it over and over again to the young girl so intensely, that she tears up and basically freezes, unsure how to respond. There's also a pretty good amount of time devoted to Ashley and a man she meets at a part time strip club job.
The good news is that Ashley definitely has a lot of emotion and cares deeply for others so if you think she spends her time in About Cherry totally clueless and being treated solely as a sex object, guess again. However when it comes to her career, she seems to turn a blind eye to reality and progresses forward. Maybe that's what real porn actors and actresses do when it's time to film a photo shoot, and how they've managed to make a name for themselves. They just *do* it without feeling anything that might prevent them from going through with it.
The movie sort of changes as it rolls along and focuses on one of the women that works with Ashley's character (played by Heather Graham). She's an older woman that happens to have a girlfriend of her own, and the storyline -for whatever reason- shifts to focusing on Heather and the relationship troubles she experiences with her girlfriend. I find this somewhat odd since the movie worked so hard with Ashley Hinshaw's character. Also the ending... it's bad. It basically goes against what I thought was going to happen for one thing, but even worse, it never touches upon a conclusive element pertaining to the people in Ashley's life (her mom, friends and boyfriend). We needed to know MORE. Without spoiling the ending, the scene before the credits roll just... seems completely not right. It feels incomplete.
While I agree with the other reviews that it seems odd how Ashley never even tried to search for another more respectable job, you have to remember when you're young and just graduated high school, you fall victim to how overwhelmingly confusing the world can be at that young age, so an opportunity to make easy money in a porn business doesn't seem so outrageous or far-fetched given the circumstances. Your perception at that age is focused more on succeeding in any way possible so you can feel secure and independent, and have the power to take care of yourself.

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