"Girls don't play electric guitar." The much-anticipated coming-of-age punk drama The Runaways captures the vibe of an all-girl rock band smashing gender barriers in the 1970s.
Dakota Fanning (The Twilight Saga: New Moon) plays Bardot-lookalike Cherie Currie, and Kristen Stewart (Twilight) plays the born punk rocker Joan Jett. Both fully realize their roles as rebels who come from troubled Los Angeles families.
Writer-director Floria Sigismondi’s music video talents are apparent here. Fanning and Stewart sing.
Just 15, Currie is a drama queen chosen for her looks by sleazy promoter Kim Fowley (over-the-top Oscar nominee Michael Shannon). She allows herself to be used as the group’s front girl in exchange for stardom.
Currie drinks and pops pills, then poses for a soft porn photo shoot in her backyard at Fowley’s request. Finally, her grandmother runs out with a broom and beats the camera man.
The real Joan Jett, as executive producer, worked closely with Stewart. We see Jett smolder, brimming with creative zeitgeist. She believes in her future as a rock star and perseveres. In a funny early scene, she razzes a conservative guitar teacher.
Willingly, the girls harden themselves in a culture of drugs, sex and rowdy groupies. “We’re selling sex, violence and revolt,” screams Fowley.
The first hour of the film is powerful, with an inside look at creativity and star-making. Fowley sends the girls out for gigs with scant food money. He calls them “dirty pussies” while they rehearse in a rundown trailer. He hires boys to pelt them with garbage to toughen them.
Finally he signs them with Mercury records. The Runaways are seen in their heyday and on their successful Japan tour.
A sexual encounter between Currie and Jett is sensitive and tentative, bathed in the white light of a drug high. The next morning, we see that Currie wore her roller skates to bed.
The Runaways becomes a downer as Currie and Jett split. Currie walks out of a recording session. She struggles through detox and holds a day job. Jett lolls in a bathtub writing new songs. We see her jumping on a mattress as she belts out the future chart-topper, I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll.
Partly based on the memoir Neon Angel by Currie, The Runaways strings together many great moments in the rise and fall of a pioneering rock band.
Closing notes reveal that Currie counseled addicts and is “a chainsaw artist.” Superstar Jett financed her own comeback with the Blackhearts. She continues to perform in the U.S. and internationally.
The Runaways 2010 / R / 1 hr, 49 min
Cast Overview: Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning, Michael Shannon, Stella Maeve, Riley Keough, Scout Taylor-Compton, Tatum O'Neal
Director: Floria Sigismondi
Genres: Drama, Drama based on Real Life, Biopic, Movie Based on the Book, Music, Rock
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