2003



June 22, 2003
Camera Cinema Club
USA
English
100 minutes

Some time has gone by since I watched this and it gets more diminished every day. The story is pretty unique in that a 40ish female bi-sexual rock n roller wonders if she should get out of the business before she becomes a joke. She barely makes enough money at gigs to pay for her makeup. Gina Gershon was the perfect choice to play the lead. She is lusted after by men and women alike. She is great to watch and has a surprisingly good singing voice which she recorded live during filming. Lori Petty is believable as the guitarist and Drea De Matteo had me convinced throughout that she really can play bass. The drummer, however, was the weak link. Rock N Roll films are always hard to do because of the sheer difficulty in playing to a recorded track. It can be faked on some instruments, but not on the drums. If we hear a hi-hat or ride cymbal, she better be hitting it onscreen. If the drums get louder, we better see her hit them harder. This didn't happen. A minor set-back in the grand scheme of the film.

Some more good things: The songs themselves were pretty catchy. One was about rape called "every six minutes" which was raw and emotional. My favorite was "punk rock girl" which could have been performed by Green Day with one word change. The acting was good throughout. The dialogue was extremely honest and truthful. They called each other "dude". They said "don't be a dick". They acted as if they'd been in the same band for years. I liked that part quite a bit.

Here's the bad stuff: While the women were relatively fully-drawn characters, there were exactly three onscreen men, each of which played the specific role they were supposed to. The manager is a doofus, Englishman, who wears shirts which are too tight and fancies himself a mover and shaker. We know from the moment we see him that he's a doofus and nothing changes our opinion. De Matteo's character's boyfriend appears onscreen being rude and getting high. We know from that point forward, which is ten minutes in, that he is no good and will be trouble the rest of the film. There is no surprise if a character stays the same. We don't see a redeeming value to him, we wonder why the girlfriend does, we know that he is dangerous, etc.

The drummer's brother shows up at their house one day covered in prison tattoos but having a face that is way too cute and well-put-together to be believable as an ex-con. Even his tattoos, which are one color, are way too elaborate to have been applied in prison. He is polite, offering to shake hands, he is attractive, he has a twinkle in his eye. We know he's been in prison for ten years, but we don't know why. As an audience, we know from this point on that whatever he did, it wasn't bad and he will be a hero/love interest. There is just no debate about it. When we find out what he did, it is almost laughable because he seems to have committed the only crime on earth that everyone can agree made him a better person rather than a felon. So we have one boyfriend who abuses substances, steals money, and is rude. We know he's gonna be bad. And we have guy just out of prison, with perfect teeth, using proper grammar, and committing an excusable murder. He'll be our hero.

The theme of sexual abuse comes up quite a bit. This topic is nothing to make light of. Another topic, which seemed a bit out of place, is the "rape fantasy" discussions. This film makes it seem that no woman on earth has ever had what we now call a "rape fantasy". I direct you to Nancy Friday's groundbreaking collection of women's fantasies called MY SECRET GARDEN. Having a fantasy does not mean you want it acted out. Or that you ever want to discuss it with anyone. Or that you could imagine it happening. It just means that once in awhile, the thought crosses your mind. I felt that there was a bit too much self-disclosure on this point, that maybe was true for one person, but not universal.

The bigger problem is this. The drummer is a lesbian. Her stepfather raped her as a child. The guitarist is a lesbian. We don't know about her upbringing. The bass player is straight, she has a trust fund. Gershon's character is bi-sexual and also the product of some form of sexual abuse. Sexual abuse happens way more than we'd like to admit. I'm blown away time after time by the sheer number of stories from many of my friends about the things that happened when they were growing up. We need laws, support, counseling, etc. But of all my lesbian friends, none of them have every told me that they became gay due to a sexual assault. People are born gay, they're born straight, they're born in between. There doesn't have to be a reason for someone liking a particular gender.

This film made it seem that way to me.