The Runaways (2010—106 mins)  K. Stewart, D. Fanning

The Runaways is a biopic about the afore named all girl rock band in the 70’s featuring the likes of Joan Jett and Lita Ford. The story centers around Jett (Kristen Stewart) and original lead singer Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning).  One thing that will help you get off on the right foot when watching is to know it is based on a book by Currie and was also exec produced by Jett. Also it was not wholely endorsed by some of the rest of the band so that kinda explains why the movie doesn’t go too much into more then Jett and Currie. The movie also starts off a bit slow so bare with it and fight thru it b/c it gets better as it goes.

   This is, in a way, a typical band story. Small unknown band goes from nothing to something then crashes. Yet here a true story makes it seem a little different. It doesn’t seem like the movie is trying to exaggerate the characters or make them super human. It’s just a story of two girls. One (Jett) who just wants to rock and music is her life and a way to live and belong. The other (Currie) is using music to help herself cope with a drunk father and selfish/oblivious mother. She loves the music but ultimately she can take it or leave it and cannot escape from the fate of abuse that is seemingly in here genes.  The typical watcher just goes into the film knowing almost by heart, the anthemic “Cherry Bomb” (ch,ch,ch,ch,ch,ch,ch CHERRY BOMB!!!), and we all know Jett can just plain ROCK. But not many of us (myself included) know the intimate story of the band and the before she was the Rock Queen of Jett as well.  Stewart plays Jett to a tee. She has the same mannerisms of her on the guitar and has the F-U attitude down pat (I guess having Joan herself on set will help that a bit too). Fanning by contrast plays Currie as the polar oposite frail girl well too.

Director Flowia Sigismondi does a great job of filmaking here. There are a bunch of subtle shots of symbolism and use of lighting to show us things are not what they used to. The subtle shot of a drain on the plane shows us how the band/story is really about to hit a real low point and headed to bad places. And when the band is at the brink of breakdown the subtle change in lighting shows us how critical the situation really is.

As always I have a slight gripe. There are times where the movie does drag. I don’t just mean the slow opening to it, but the nearing to the end. We all know and get it, Joan Jett is a star and Currie is struggling with addition and losing it a bit with the pressure of family both at home and band family. We just don’t need to see it dragged out for as long as it did. She could have cut out about 10 mins of screen time of it all and been just as good with it all.

Verdict—> I liked this movie quite a bit. It might not appeal to everyone tho. I am a music guy and love rock, and love anthems such as Cherry Bomb , (Jetts Bad Reputation is one of my fav songs of all time) but not everyone does. Some people won’t like the film style the pace of it or the usual up and down story of rock bands, but I don’t care it’s good anyway. I think alot of poeple will enjoy it for that. If this sounds like something you will like then go for it. Another R rated movie with sex drugs and rock and roll so again NO KIDS.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS