Title: The Runaways (2010)Starring: Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning, Michael Shannon
Directed By: Floria Sigismondi
The Runaways is a fairly straightforward biopic about the 70's all-girl rock band. More specifically, it's mainly focused on guitarist Joan Jett and lead singer Cherie Currie. The film chronicles their humble beginnings through to the band's dissolution 4 years later.
The thing that works best in this movie is the cast. Kristen Stewart plays Joan Jett as fearless, yet vulnerable. Dakota Fanning portrays Cherie's innocence and sexuality both equally as playful. The supporting cast includes band mates Stella Maeve (Sandy West), Scout Taylor-Compton(Lita Ford) and Alia Shawkat (playing "Robin", the only fictional character as Jackie Fox refused her rights to the production); and Michael Shannon as producer Kim Fowley, each handling their responsibilities well.
While there isn't much here that hasn't been done before, the film does do a good job of representing its setting (both in place and time), and never overdoes it. It feels "real" enough onscreen. On a more personal note, I'd say the only hard thing for me to watch was seeing Dakota Fanning participate in acts of sex and drug use. She's playing (slightly) older, but was still only 15 when this was filmed! And while she pulls it off believably, and that's definitely to her own credit as an actress, it became a little hard for me to separate actress from role and just roll with it. That's not really a criticism of the movie, just something I found myself thinking while watching it.
The real star here though, should have been the music. And it IS definitely as much a character as anyone in this film. The problem though, is that it quickly becomes second fiddle to the narrative and the movie suffers for it. Strong performances from the three leads could have been the icing on the cake had they nailed the music aspect down, but unfortunately it never takes center stage like I had hoped. All-in-all though, this is a highly entertaining film, and a decent take on a pretty interesting story too. Recommended.
Score: 7.5/10
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