THE RUNAWAYS (2010)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
I have loved Joan Jett and the Blackhearts but I never listened to her first band, the Runaways. I will say that after seeing the dazzling and near-hallucinatory depiction of this underage band, I may be inclined to do so. I still clamor for the day when Joan Jett will get her own fully-rounded bio treament. As much as I like the volatile charge of the film "The Runaways," the story of Cherie Currie, the basis for the film, is less than dazzling to me.
The genesis of the Runaways, an all-girl band, was formed by rhythm guitarist Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) and drummer Sandy West (Stella Maeve) under the supervision and tutelage of an arrogant, sexed-up egocentric maniac named Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon). Kim wants the girls to perform with the abandonment and free will of young ingenues looking to be screwed and blitzed, representing a basic middle finger to society and authority. In other words, rock and roll and jailbait, all in one package. Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning), a 15-year-old David Bowie fan, is first eyed by Joan and then discovered by Kim - he sees her as jailbait and hires her as the lead singer, regardless of whether she has talent or not. They rehearse inside a grimy trailer in the middle of the woods. The sessions would make parents of such young girls nervous nowadays, especially with the sexual phrases that come out of Kim Fowley's mouth. But this is the 1970's, not 2010
As written and directed by Floria Sigismondi (based on Currie's autobiography, "Neon Angel"), "The Runaways" is hardly a typical or conventional rock biography. There is also no sense of the typical "rise and fall of a band." Instead the movie gets inside the druggy and sexed-up interior feel of young girls who just want to have fun, rock and party, minus the supervision from any adults. The girls are all under the age of 19 and the baroque manner of their manager and agent, Kim (who is pilfering their finances for his own pleasure), shows he is not the right person to be guiding them. Yes, he comes up with the lyrics for "Cherry Bomb," the Runaways' first hit but their major success is mostly in Japan, not the U.S. You sense Kim didn't do enough to help their success except to exploit them, particularly Currie, as pure jailbait models.
As I stated earlier, I suppose I didn't feel a connection to Cherie Currie as I did to Joan Jett in this film (the other girls in the band, including Lita Ford, are not given much of a spotlight). Jett is the dynamo, the rock-and-roller who wants to blast through the airwaves and provoke as much as Kim does. Cherie seems reluctant and more despondent than the others, and that makes her less riveting to me. Although we get glimpses of Cherie's home life (alcoholic father, frustrated sister, a fleeting appearance of her mother), it is hard to feel anything but a fleeting sense of remorse for her situation. Cherie seems unconnected to anyone, even Joan Jett.
Most of "The Runaways" is startling and in-your-face and serves as a glimpse into the backstage drama of an all-girl band, much like the underappreciated "Ladies and Gentleman, The Fabulous Stains" of which this film bears more than a striking resemblance. The performances in "The Runaways" are beyond stellar, especially Kristen Stewart with her firecracker of a performance along with the eccentric Michael Shannon. They embody something fundamentally deeper about rock and roll - the need to break out and expand beyond their horizons. Dakota Fanning, who is stunning to watch, delivers a merely glum Cherie. That may be the real Cherie, but I need more Jett to get fired up over Cherie.
