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Rating: 3 stars

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Alamo South

Seen 1 time

Seen on: 04/03/2010

View on: IMDb | TMDb

The Runaways (2010)

Directed by Floria Sigismondi

Drama

Most recently watched by sensoria, noahphex, jenerator

Overview

Joan Jett and Cherie Currie, two rebellious teenagers from Southern California, become the frontwomen for The Runaways—the now-legendary group that paved the way for future generations of female rockers. Under the Svengali-like influence of impresario Kim Fowley, the band becomes a huge success.

Rated R | Length 106 minutes

Actors

Michael Shannon | Dakota Fanning | Brendan Sexton III | Brett Cullen | Scout Taylor-Compton | Kristen Stewart | Keir O'Donnell | Johnny Lewis | Hannah Marks | Alia Shawkat | Robert Romanus | Tatum O'Neal | Stella Maeve | Time Winters | Riley Keough | Lisa Long | Peggy Stewart | Nick Eversman | Conrad Bluth | Allie Grant | Adam Silver

Viewing Notes

While I’m familiar enough with Joan Jett and know a little about The Runaways I didn’t know anything about their history going into this docu-drama film about their start.

What I got was a pretty interesting, but somewhat predictable take on the meteoric rise of the first all girl rock band, fronted by Cherie Curie, Joan Jett, Lita Ford and Sandy West.

Standing out for me in this movie was Kristen Stewart, who up until this role I had really only seen her lame lip-biting sucktasticness in that first Twilight film. However, I found her to be much more dynamic and actually believable as Joan Jett in The Runaways. Playing Curie was Dakota Fanning, who, just on a personal level, I still have a hard time as seeing as anything less than a little girl. I think it’s something she’s going to have a hard time overcoming and this film is certainly a step in the right direction.

If the story is true to the events, The Runaways got their start as somewhat produced and put together by Kim Fowley (played excellently by Michael Shannon). What he had the girls do was to toughen up and be as hard as guys so they were taken seriously as a band. He even went so far as to, during rehearsals, have kids throw garbage collected from outside the trailer they practiced in, at them. He also basically had them embrace their sexuality and use it as a force to be reckoned with. This is an awkward thing for someone like Fanning, who not only is super young, but also someone audiences have always just seen as a little girl. I guess it’s no Hounddog, which was way more of a challenge, but it shows she’s trying to break out and seems to be getting more successful at it.

All in all, while the movie does get a little slow in the end where we see the inevitable decline of the band due to conflicting interests, drugs and the band being played against each other by producer Fowley, overall it’s an interesting look at what is a hugely influential band.

It’s movies like this that have me looking back on artists I knew only a little about and will have me listening to more of their music. Also it gives me faith that down the line Stewart can hopefully break out of just being Bella and that Fanning will continue to grow as an actress.

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