Kristen Stewart is Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning is Cherie Currie in this film about '70s bad-girl rock band, The Runaways. This is the feature debut from music video director Floria Sigismondi (clips for Marilyn Manson, Christina Aguilera and The White Stripes).
The story follows Jett and Currie from their youth, as aspiring rock girls and Bowie fans (with Bowie hair). Jett is the serious one and has always known she wants to play music, Currie is the hot blonde recruited in a bar for her looks, and later taught how to sing.
Joan Jett's rock'n'roll story is ground-breaking one of art, liberation and power. But the cinematic portrayal of her life with lead singer Cherie Currie is inspid, emotionless and dull. Director and scriptwriter Floria Sigismondi, who based the film on Currie's memoirs, tries to inject a sense of aloofness in her teenage protagonists, played by a vacant Dakota Fanning and Twilight's Kristen Stewart, in a twitchy, boyish performance.
So much for the overwrought emotional peaks of the vampire flicks. In The Runaways, the cool kids take drugs, get wild on the road and prepare for their lives as rock musicians by fielding flying dog poo, hurled by their zany, mysogyist manager, Kim (played with irreverence by Michael Shannon) with all the excitement of bored third formers. He's the film's saving grace but even his role is bogged down in rock'n'roll cliche.
The problem is the film's lack of any real context. Sure, we know it's the ‘70s because of the bell-bottoms and razored haircuts, the hazy lighting effects. But Jett and Currie's affair is revealed with nary an insight into the emotional confusion it must have caused, and Currie's relationship with her increasingly estranged family is under-developed, just as Jett's meteoric rise to fame is seen from the surface. Jumping on the bed in excitement that their record has made the top 10 is about as far as it goes to explaining the achievements of Jett and her teenage band The Runaways. If it wasn't for the music, this biopic would be a total dud.
By Rebecca Barry Hill, Flicks.co.nz
Two things I was dreading - that this would be yet another yikky saccharine Hollywood teen-chick flick (TWILIGHT with songs!) and, talking of TWI-SH*TE - Kristen Stewart. Actually, I needn't have worried. This is on a par with WHIP IT - and can be enjoyed regardless of the biology in your pants! It's fun, the cast are good (especially Shannon as the creepy manager) and the music's pretty cool too. See it - it's more entertaining than you might think!
Kristen Stewart pulls out a great stop-calling-me-Bella role as Joan while Dakota Fanning remains her usual I’m-still-pretty-damn-good performance as Cherie. The highlight act for many, me included, goes to Michael Shannon. Playing the band’s hilariously contrived producer, Shannon should probably leave a ransom note after every scene he steals . The film suffers from a weak ending and a sizeable drop in pace nearing the last half hour, but it’s still a decent testosterone-fuelled riot. 100wordmoviereviews.blogspot.com/
Saw it at the Film Festival...Brilliantly cast movie. Been waiting for the DVD release. Worth repeat viewings. :)
An interesting look into girls doing rock n roll in the 1970's. Some good music here, some solid performances from Dokata Fanning,Michael Shannon and Kristin Stewart. The Runaways had their small little run and made their mark.I recommend this film for anyone interested in the runaways
Somehow the director has managed to make the story of the Runaways a bit... boring. Which is odd because the acting is generally strong, and the photography is uniformly beautiful, and the few live performances are great. But it turns out that years as a music video director isn't a perfect training ground for creating a driving narrative, and for crafting performances that really involve you and draw you in. Which is a pity as the actress who plays Joan Jett NAILS it. The problem is that Jett competes for screentime with Cheri Currie, the singer of the Runaways, and what happens just isn't that dramatically interesting. You'd have to really love rock'n'roll biopics, and be into the Runaways/Joan Jett, or enjoy movies set in 1970's California (well captured!) to really get into the movie. For the rest of us, it's a pretty looking film, with some solid performances, that fails to ignite dramatically and carry us along. It's really a 2.5 out of 5. It gets a 3 because of Kristen Stewart's accurate channelling of Joan Jett.
Its interest comes from Shannon's fierce and sadistic training scenes as Kim Fowley, and from the intrinsic qualities of the performances by Stewart and Fanning, who bring more to their characters than the script provides.
More than just your average tale of rock 'n' roll dreams-turned-nightmares, this slick but shaggy, crowd-pleasing yarn is a Runaway success.
Based on singer Cherie Currie's memoir Neon Angel, The Runaways is a pretty good, but maybe slightly cock-eyed account of the birth, life and implosion of the world's first all- women rock band.
The vigor and pace is electric, and the movie features three showy performances by Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning and Michael Shannon.
The movie may be a little too tame in the end, but at its best it is just wild enough.
We've been told the NZ release date for this flick is Thursday, 9th Sep 2010.
Release date: September 9th 2010.
We haven't received times for this movie in this location yet. However these are updated as cinemas announce them, so check back soon. Hopefully the lovely cinemas in your location will choose to play it shortly. ~Ed.
