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Dev Patel

Reviews

Monkey Man (2024)
The Green Knight (2021)
Hotel Mumbai (2019)
The Wedding Guest (2019)
Lion (2016)
Chappie (2015)
About Cherry (2012)

Blog Posts

Features

Thumbnails 2/9/17

Oscar nominees spotlight diversity; Best Actor Battle; Damien Chazelle wins DGA Award; "The Salesman" may win thanks to Trump; All nominees tipped to win.

Ebert Club

#242 December 24, 2014

Sheila writes: I wanted to share with you all this gorgeous video celebrating Ebertfest. Shot by the talented crew at Shatterglass Studios at Ebertfest 2014, it is a 14-minute video capturing the unique vibe at the film festival, its intimacy and joy, its celebrity guests, and the beauty of the Virginia Theatre. Passes for Ebertfest 2015 are on sale at the Ebertfest site. Hope to see many of you there. Happy holidays, and a very happy New Year!

TV/Streaming

There's Something About Cherry

"About Cherry" (102 minutes) is available now on demand at IFC, iTunes, Amazon Instant and SundanceNow. Opens theatrically September 21, 2012 in New York.

After reading the synopsis for "About Cherry," I figured I had it pegged. Here's a movie about a fresh-faced, clean-cut American girl named Angelina who goes the photographic Full Monty before graduating to porn. "Oh brother," I thought. "Another cautionary tale." In American cinema, you just can't enjoy sex. There has to be some consequence for all the ejaculations of "oh god!" and "yes I said yes I will Yes." If you're a man, you tend to get off scot free. But a woman who enjoys the same activity might as well be struck by lightning onscreen. So I expected poor Angelina to run afoul of drugs, sexual abuse and possibly fatal violence. The press materials seemed to support my supposition: "But Angelina's newfound ideal lifestyle soon comes apart at the seams," it ominously states. I braced myself for the worst.

Eighteen-year old Angelina (Ashley Hinshaw) lives in Southern California with her younger sister (Maya Raines), her alcoholic mother (Lili Taylor) and Mama's latest man. Angelina yearns to escape her dismal home life, so with a little coaxing from her rock band boyfriend (Johnny Weston), she visits his photographer buddy Vaughn (Ernest Waddell). Vaughn shoots erotic photos, and Angelina is both erotic and photogenic. The photo shoot is such a rousing success that Weston demands Angelina avoid Vaughn for future shoots. Angelina dumps the rocker.