Seth Jarrett, David Roma, 2004
8.0
i admire Gina Gershon. i think i've only seen one of her films. but i admire her for what she tried to do with Prey for Rock & Roll, a film she honestly believed in, and the appallingly strenuous promotion that followed its release. she produced an indie film and then was made to go on the road for a short rock tour to promote the film. she's got guts. and that's one of the reasons i was interested in this IFC series. the other? Girls Against Boys :) let me make a short digression, if i may. they're one of those bands i personally have a soft spot for. they opened for Garbage on the 2.0 tour so i got to see them play quite a few times. i got into them and bought all of their albums (even bought 200 Cigarettes because they appeared in one scene). i even got to meet them after a show and they were, for the 5 minutes they afforded us, really cool guys (Alexis even came up and hung out with us for a bit). as i said, i've got a soft spot for them. enough said. on with the show. so Gina Gershon gets thrown onto a short rock tour by a shitty distributor to promote her film. she brings along Girls Against Boys to round out the band. she hopes for the best as they rush through an intense couple of weeks of media promotion for the film during the day and rock and roll gigs at night, finding out that indie money is really no money at all. i had to adjust to the series in the beginning because everything went by so quickly that the filmmakers are only there to witness the tour and don't ask questions or get to develop themes. so that gave it a superficial nature that made it hard to get into at first. but then something happened. as i watched episode 4 i started to feel part of the gang, and the rest of the series was just plain fun. the voiceover by Gina can be irritating at times because it makes it feel like the producer is imposing her vision of events. but that's the only major negative thing i can think of. other than that, don't go in expecting a life-altering experience (although there are some incredibly touching moments to be found). just go in to see what Gina and her band did, what she set out to do, and get a glimpse of what it's like to get an indie film made and distributed. this is the grunt work. Maxim, People, and FHM don't show you these things -- this is the real world where people, yes, even Gina Gershon, work. given how my feelings about the series were at the beginning, this actually turned out into quite an admirable effort.
Posted by Anonymous | 8:33 PM
