*** May contain spoilers*** Wow. This movie is really bad. It's so bad that the first word of the title is misspelled (I'd be willing to allow for the possibility of it being some awful pun if everything else didn't suggest that it was out of the intellectual league of the producers to allow for this. Also, the song of the same name in the movie indicates that it's supposed to be "pray"). The drummer, guitarist, and bassist were all well-cast and were pretty good in their roles... but the main character, played by Gina Gershon, is such a monumental bitch, it's hard to relate to her or her world unless you're the most hardened, bitter, negative person. She has this perpetual scowl smeared on her face and is incapable of not sneering or radiating this fake bad-ass attitude that instantly makes everything around her turn to sh*t. Which everything does, both in the context of the movie, and in the meta-context. And the plot itself a bit ridiculous, considering that her bandmate gets raped, another bandmate descends into serious drug abuse, and yet another bandmate dies in a freak accident-- all within the span of like a week. Oh, and she takes revenge on the rapist, who incidentally, is unconvincing as a realistic portrayal of a deranged nut. Somehow it's just hard to take it all seriously, and worse, Gershon's character really has a way of ruining the rest of the movie, contaminating it all with her bitter bile.
And then there's the music. Jesus Christ. It's cliché in this bitter "I'm too cool for life" kind of way, where everything has this faux sleazy, sneering overtone that's frankly just embarrassing to watch. There are some points where it sounds moderately interesting, but then Gina starts singing and it's all over.
I guess if you're into the rock'n'roll narrative, you'll find something to like about this movie; after all, this romantic notion of being hungry and breaking through to the mainstream has a certain appeal, but I just don't think it's done all that well here, either in a technical sense or in story-telling. There are signs that the writers have some talent, and are able to convey things subtly, but the larger narrative is not very compelling or capable of generating strong response-- although you will almost certainly hate Gershon's character.
5/10
And then there's the music. Jesus Christ. It's cliché in this bitter "I'm too cool for life" kind of way, where everything has this faux sleazy, sneering overtone that's frankly just embarrassing to watch. There are some points where it sounds moderately interesting, but then Gina starts singing and it's all over.
I guess if you're into the rock'n'roll narrative, you'll find something to like about this movie; after all, this romantic notion of being hungry and breaking through to the mainstream has a certain appeal, but I just don't think it's done all that well here, either in a technical sense or in story-telling. There are signs that the writers have some talent, and are able to convey things subtly, but the larger narrative is not very compelling or capable of generating strong response-- although you will almost certainly hate Gershon's character.
5/10