A movie about a hot young woman getting into the * industry, staring James Franco and Dev Patel? Can't go wrong, right? Wrong!
What I liked: I liked the fact that without watching *, I got to see an amazingly beautiful Ashley Hinshaw tease the camera, have sex multiple times, show her breasts, and play with herself. I enjoy any movie where young people spontaneously leave the town they have spent their whole lives in and hit the road with only the clothes on their back. My favorite part of the film was the fact that it was almost a feminist movie; at the very least it had speckles of feminism. Cherry is left and called a disgusting * by a man (James Franco) she was falling in love with, called a huge disappointment by her mother, and loses her best friend because of how she has chosen to make money. A woman exercising control over her own body scares the living poop out of 95% of us men, but Cherry doesn't care too much about what people think.
What I didn't like: I have seen James Franco in a lot of movies (and, of course, Freaks and Geeks) and have enjoyed each and every one. I didn't even know he was in this movie until the opening credits, which was a pleasant surprise. Then, I met his horribly clichéd character; a man who dreamed of being an artist as a child, was put down, and instead became a lawyer. He know has money, but always wonders what could have been. Because of these regrets he is a drug addicted narcissist. If, before I watched, someone would have told me that Franco plays a clichéd part, I would have still assumed his acting would have been enough to make it enjoyable- it wasn't. Dev Patel, although I haven't seen him in anything besides Slumdog Millionaire, was respected in my mind. Unfortunately, he also badly plays a clichéd character. The nerdy (probably gay) best friend of a hot chick who watches said hot chick fall in love with other guys and is therefore miserable. The scene where their roommate Paco takes Patel to a gay bar is one of the most unbelievable, horribly acted, scenes in this wacky movie. The award for worst, most unbelievable scene goes to the part of the movie where Cherry and Patel first arrive in San Francisco. They have never been to the city, apparently have little to no money, and set up an interview for a room in a loft. The interview lasts less than a minute- they meet Paco, Paco shows them the room, they say they'll take it, and they begin unpacking. Seriously? I doubt this could even happen in the smallest community in America.
I can write pages upon pages about how bad this movie was, but I'm getting bored and feeling suicidal just from these short paragraphs. After posting this review, I will do everything in my power to erase the memory of this film, in order to still have some respect for James Franco.
