USER REVIEW:

The part of this film I am most interested in, of course, is it’s function as a feminist fairy tale. The narrative is structured around Clam Dandy, an all-woman (with two lesbians and one bisexual woman) L.A. punk band. The singer, Jacki (Gina Gershon) is often the solid figure the other members depend on. Jacki, despite being beautiful for her 39 years, expresses consistent insecurity about what is socially appropriate for 39 year old women and how valuable she is, as a 39 year old woman to society. This is a very real set of doubts for most women in the Western world, and I imagine living in L.A., even if it is the seedy underbelly, has to intensify those concerns. Despite her worries undermining her self-esteem, Jacki supports her three band mates through trying ordeals. Tracy (Drea Matteo) is a messy-headed drug addict. Tracy confesses toward the end of the film, that she is addicted to narcotics and alcohol. Lori Petty (from “Tank Girl”) plays Faith, a bleached blonde lesbian, who rings for Anne Heche in her Ellen heyday. Faith, like Jacki is a relatively solid character, although her lack of experience with personal tragedy alienates the other characters as they experience their own personal horrors. I felt that this interpersonal dynamic is a very common, real one in real life, so the introspection of the script definitely works in “Prey”s favor. Sally (Shelly Cole), the drummer for Clam Dandy, looks younger and hipper with her retro styling ala “Grease”, but she endures the most sexualized violence out of any of the leading female characters. She expresses her frustration that her girlfriend Faith looks at her as though she will “shatter”, giving the viewer an idea of her own internal strength. The character development here is rich, and I especially appreciated the attention paid to the dynamics of female friendships. Even more, I appreciated the complex web of feelings between subjects that emerges within groups of women. I think these qualities are really important for a movie to function as a feminist consciousness raising film, but in the milieu of female clichés, it is increasingly difficult to construct female characters who don’t reconstitute existing clichés. It helps that the character who goes down at the end is not “the junkie whore” or “the rape victim”, otherwise “Prey” would descend into the fodder of after school specials. The interpersonal conversation is really what adds contextual depth to the subjects in this film.