If Gina Gershon ever decides to give up on acting, a fine second career as a singer awaits. As lead singer of a margins-dwelling all-woman L.A. rock band in Prey For Rock & Roll, Gershon belts out song after song with such Joan Jett-ish gusto that it takes a moment to realize that she's rocking a lot harder than the songs, or the movie, deserve. Gershon plays a rock 'n' roll vet on the edge of 40, frustrated with the ongoing lack of success that greets her band Clam Dandy. (The name couldn't have something to do with it, could it?) A collection of familiar rock types fills out the band's lineup: hard-living party girl Drea de Matteo on the bass, and Lori Petty as a committed guitar fiend in a happy relationship with sweet drummer Shelly Cole. They occasionally resemble Josie And The Pussycats with a few hard years under their belts, and Prey doesn't have much interest in getting beyond the two-dimensional descriptions spelled out by Gershon's introductory voiceover. Veteran music supervisor turned first-time director Alex Steyermark helms the cinematic adaptation of a semi-autobiographical play by Cheri Lovedog, and his claustrophobic film captures the go-nowhere world of small-time rock all too well. The band seldom leaves its rehearsal space or a shared house as it confronts substance abuse, label indifference, and, in a pair of clumsily handled subplots, rape and death. Unfortunately, nothing about Clam Dandy suggests that it should hit the big time. The Lovedog-penned songs sound like the output of smoky-club nobodies, which makes Prey For Rock & Roll's solemn attempts to portray the group as an example of thwarted greatness even less effective. An actress of magnetizing screen presence whose inability to land choice roles can only be attributed to her post-TRL age, Gershon easily identifies with her character, giving her performance an edge that this lazy, punked-up melodrama otherwise lacks.