Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Next comes "Prey for Rock & Roll," a much more serious look at the same concept. Based on cheri Lovedog’s semi-autobiographical stage play (which played at CeeBeeGeeBees a club also instrumental in the success of The Ramones) Alex Steyermark directs this unglamoros but loving look at those who spend their life just trying to make it small let alone big.

Jacki (played amazingly by Gina Gershon, who also does all her own singing) is a punk rocker turning forty who has been playing the same dives for twenty years while scratching out a living as a tatoo artist. She fronts a band that includes drug addled trust fund baby Tracy (Drea de Matteo), and lesbian couple Faith (played by a Lori Petty of "Tank Girl" fame, who is maturing into a truly excellent actress) and Sally (Shelly Cole of "Gilmore Girls"). Jacki is herself a bisexual and a canvass of amazing tattoos (if you love tatooed women this is the film for you) who can’t hold down a relationship due to her musical obsessions. The rest of the band share a house and must deal with Tracy’s dealer boyfriend as well as the arrival Sally’s recently paroled brother (played by Marc Blucas of "Buffy : The Vampire Slayer" fame who, surprisingly, can actually act).

Plots abound, as Sally’s brother becomes attracted to the much older Jacki, Tracy’s boyfriend becomes an increeasing problem and a record deal becomes a possibility. At it’s heart, however, the film is about following your dream and how long can one really be a punk rock rebel ? Will you be cashing your social security checks and still hoping for your big break ?

The film (like others at the festival) treats homosexual loves scenes exactly as heterosexual love scenes would be treated in Hollywood. Not graphic but certainly overt and treeated as a matter of course, not something shocking or unusual. Credit to the filmmakers for this atttitude.

For the most part the music is solid, though the film-makers do tend to save the better songs for later in the film. There’s no real plot reason for this so it’s hard to get interested in the music at first. Some fothe song, like many punk songs, would probably benefit from being heard a few times and when the soundtrack comes out October 7th I’ll be tempted to pick it up. Check the record credits, the studio perfromers are a veritable Who’s Who ? of female punk rock performers.

In the end "Prey for Rock & Roll" is a moving, solid and respectful look at a part of society that doesn’t get seen elsewhere and doesn’t brging in cute twelve-year-olds to help soften the story. All the performances are good and the story is believable and moving.

My prediction : "Prey for Rock & Roll" opens in L.A. Septemeber 26th and expands to San Fransico and Seattle the next week expanding to 45 markets by the end of October. No Canadian deal was in place as of the screening. While a great film I’d expect it to measure its box office using six figures, or perhaps push just past one million.