Synopsis
Gina Gershon, leader of the Clam Dandys, is about to turn 40, and still hasn’t had her bigrock & roll break. She is insecure about aging, and can’t maintain a relationship with either menor women. Also in her band are Lori Petty (guitar teacher by day), Petty’s lover Shelly Cole (thevery young drummer), and the drug-and-booze-and-loser-boyfriend addled Drea De Matteo (thebass player). Then two things happen: there is the possibility that the band might finally get itsbreak,…and Cole’s brother Marc Blucas shows up, fresh out of prison and with an eye forGershon.
The story arc is rather familiar, perhaps overly so in its mix of pathos, comedy and tragedy.The performances are very solid, however, and Gershon maintains her butch cred by playing forboth teams between the sheets. The grittiness and near-despair of the low-end rock scene is alsovery convincingly captured.
Audio
One powerful mix here. This is one of the loudest DVDs I’ve encountered in a while, whichis fitting, given the music. Said music is very well served by the 5.1 score. Some of Gershon’svoice-over is also in full surround, however, which is a little off-putting — the story doesn’t needher sounding like the Voice of God. There is also essentially no surround effects beyond themusic.
Video
The anamorphic widescreen transfer (which looks like 1.78:1) is sharp, and has good colours.The contrasts are excellent, especially considering how much of the film takes place at night orotherwise in the dark.. There is no grain or visible edge enhancement. A good job, then, exceptwhere the trailers are concerned, which are grainy, pixellated messes.
Special Features
Select the Lions Gate logo for trailers for the feature, Shattered Glass and StealingCandy. The commentary by director Alex Steyermark is a very solid piece of work –informative, articulate, giving us lots of background and paying due credit to the script co-writtenby Cheri Lovedog and heavily inspired by her life. the menu’s main screen and intro are animatedand scored, while the secondary pages are scored.
Closing Thoughts
Familiar, but gritty, and very well performed, especially by Gershon and Petty.
Special Features List
- Director’s Commentary
- Trailers
