FilmArcade.net: The Runaways (2010) - Review by Fred [The Wolf]

DIRECTED BY
Floria Sigismondi

STARRING
Kristen Stewart - Joan Jett
Dakota Fanning - Cherie Currie
Michael Shannon - Kim Fowley
Scout-Taylor Compton - Lita Ford
Stella Maeve - Sandy West
Alia Shawkat - Robin
Riley Keough - Marie Currie
Johnny Lewis - Scottie

Genre - Drama/Music/Biopic

Running Time - 107 Minutes

Score - 3 Howls Outta 4

For a long time, rock 'n' roll music was a male dominated genre led by acts such as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and so on. However in 1975, eccentric record producer Kim Fowley gathered five young girls to form one of the first all-female rock bands, The Runaways. Even though they broke up in 1979, the band influenced a lot of other all-female bands, such as The Go-Gos and The Bangles. Not only that, but two of its members, lead guitarist Lita Ford and rhythm guitarist Joan Jett, achieved great solo success in the rock world.

Cherie Currie, the lead singer for The Runaways and the inspiration for their biggest song, "Cherry Bomb", would write a memoir called Neon Angel, about her hard life growing up, her time in The Runaways, and the massive substance abuse that pretty much ruined her career. Joan Jett, feeling it was time for The Runaways story to be told, decided to produce a film adaptation based on Neon Angel. Starring TWILIGHT's Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, THE RUNAWAYS was released in early 2010 to decent critical acclaim but not much commercial success.

It wasn't due to lack of interest, since rhythm games such as Rock Band and now Guitar Hero are now bringing their music to younger fans. It was probably because if you've seen one biopic about a rock band, you've pretty much seen them all. At least THE RUNAWAYS has some great performances in its leads and in Michael Shannon, making it worth a look above most of the others.

PLOT
1975, Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) and Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning) are two teenage misfits with dreams of rock 'n' roll. Cherie loves David Bowie and is considered an outsider because of it, especially during a talent show where she lip-syncs to Bowie and even dresses like him, to the crowd's disinterest and ridicule [in one of the film's best moments]. Joan, at the same time, wants to start her own band but keeps getting shot down because "girls don't play electric guitars" and she needs to act and dress more feminine.

At a night club one night, Joan meets up with record producer Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon) to help her build an all-girl rock band. While gathering four members, including Lita Ford (Scout Taylor-Compton), Sandy West (Stella Maeve), and the fictional Robin (Alia Shawkat), Fowley realizes they're missing a singer that looks like Bridgette Bardot. This leads to Joan and Fowley finding Cherie, seeing that she has the sex appeal the band needs to get noticed. Wanting to get away from her neglectful mother (Tatum O'Neal) and her alcoholic father (Brett Cullen), Cherie agrees to join the band.

Fowley begins to give the girls a boot camp in rock 'n' roll. He tells them that they need to act and think like men, as well as indulge in the lifestyle such as drugs, sex, and alcohol. While the members follow the advice, Cherie indulges a bit too much and becomes a victim of her own dreams. The Runaways' fame is rapid [especially in Japan] and their self-destruction is even quicker. But the one thing that didn't get destroyed is the relationship between Joan and Cherie, whose friendship is passionate in more ways than one.

REVIEW
I'm glad a movie about THE RUNAWAYS was made because not many younger rock fans know about this band, even though "Cherry Bomb" is a very popular rock/punk song from the 1970s. And yes, the narrative to this film is your pretty standard biopic. We see our characters as struggling unknowns. We see them get together to form the foundation for the band. We watch them gain fame and fortune. We watch how drugs, sex, and fame can turn into negative influences, both personally and professionally. And then we see the eventual breakdown of the band and the aftermath they left behind. Some reviewers I read for this film called this structure "lazy". I don't because that's how all biopics should go. It's the law of the land.

THE RUNAWAYS does do things that make it stand out from other biopics of this kind. For one, it begins with a shot of menstrual blood dripping down Cherie's leg onto the pavement as she gets her first period. What other film can say that? Also, the fact that we're following a band of young girls trying to succeed in a world dominated by men is actually quite interesting and makes the film sort of a social study in gender roles. And we get a lot of that in this film. Kim Fowley, the band's own producer, criticizes the fact that they play like women and sing like women. He wants them to play like men and think with their cocks. On the road, the girls must deal with a male rock band [who are supposedly the band Rush] who don't believe that girls have any place in rock 'n' roll. Joan retaliates by peeing on their guitars. To keep up with the lifestyle, they indulge in alcohol and drugs. And when Cherie becomes the face of the band due to her jailbait looks and not for the music, the band resents her. Unfortunately, the theme doesn't go much further than it does on the surface. But it would have made for an interesting case study if the screenplay was a bit deeper.

In fact, the film plays with the idea of sexuality. We have Cherie getting her period in the first shot. We have Cherie gaining confidence, becoming sort of this shy girl into this growling sex kitten that wears provocative outfits on stage. Joan teaches Sandy West how to masturbate in the shower. Cherie, underage, sleeps with the much older roadie. And Joan and Cherie even share their own intimacy, making out and probably even having sex with each other. It's kind of fascinating and slightly uncomfortable to watch at the same time.

The main focus of the story, however, is the relationship between Joan Jett and Cherie Currie. I actually enjoyed the fact that Joan Jett was portrayed as very multi-dimensional, especially when it came to her sexuality. While she did have relationship with men, her relationships with women seemed more frequent and more powerful. Yet, Joan is never defined or trapped by labels. The total opposite goes to Cherie, whose looks were pretty much the major reasons why The Runaways were successful. She was the "sex kitten" of the group and Cherie had to struggle with that. And seeing the two characters interact with each other, even due to their differences, was quite refreshing for a biopic. Usually, you would have them argue and go their separate ways in anger. But there's nothing but love between the two characters. In fact, I think Joan may have been in love with Cherie, even if Cherie didn't feel the same way. Even after the breakup, there's a scene [where Joan is launching her successful solo career after "I Love Rock 'N' Roll" was released] where Cherie [now working retail] calls her after years of not speaking with the love between the two still there. So instead of a sad ending, we get a happy one, which was nice to see for a change.

I also thought the Kim Fowley character was extremely fascinating. The guy is such a creep. He verbally abuses the girls in the band. He won't pay the band even after a gig, making excuses for it. He sets up impromptu photo sessions for Cherie, having her be photographed in sexy outfits for publicity knowing it will piss the other band members off. And during the breakup scene, Fowley enjoys the implosion, instigating it. I wished this guy would get his own film because I have no doubt it would be an entertaining movie.

I do have issues with the narrative though. For one, a lot of the facts are pretty twisted here. THE RUNAWAYS makes it seem as if the band was only together for like a year of two, when they were together longer than that. We get no sense of time, which would have helped, because the band's fallout seems much faster than one would expect. In fact, it makes it seem as if when Cherie quit the band due to her issues, The Runaways broke up. Not true, as they continued to forge on for a while longer with Joan singing lead. I felt that this film should have been longer because things happened way too quick for anything to have any sort of resonance. There were a lot of things missing here due to a lot being crammed in such a short period of time.

And while I do think the Joan/Cherie relationship was the strongest aspect of the film and should have been the focus of the film [after all, it's based on Cherie's memoirs], I feel as if the rest of the group got the shaft. Sandy West, the drummer, is the only other member who gets decent screen time. Still, I had no idea who she was and I didn't really care. She was actually a very good drummer and had a decent solo career as well after The Runaways broke up, but you wouldn't get that from watching this. And as the co-founder of The Runaways, she got the shaft. Unfortunately, West passed away years ago, so maybe that had something to do with it. And the fictional bassist, Robin, is nothing but a silent stand-in for the actual bassist, Jackie Fox, who refused permission to be used in the film.

And my biggest gripe has to be for the lack of Lita Ford, who has become a hard rock/metal icon after The Runaways. She's barely in the film and when she is, all she does is bitch and scream at the other members. I read that Lita Ford refused to participate in the production of this film because she felt disrespected by Joan Jett's manager, who wanted her rights for a measly grand. I don't blame her if that was the case, but this feud with Joan Jett made the film less meaningful to me. At least Ford did meet with Taylor-Compton and approved the actress after having very personal conversations with her about their lives growing up, seemingly sharing many things in common. But I wish was more about Ford because she was a very important part of The Runaways as the lead guitarist.

Floria Sigismondi, a music video director, does a good job bringing the Neon Angel memoir to life. While the standard narrative is paced well, it's the musical scenes that really give the film life. Especially the famous "Cherry Bomb" performance during a concert in Japan, where we really see what The Runaways were really about and why they were pioneers. Sigismondi handled the relationships between characters well [especially Fowley with the band, Joan and Cherie, and Cherie and her twin sister Marie]. I thought she did a nice job touching upon the important aspects of the group without exploiting it.

The acting is actually quite good in THE RUNAWAYS. Kristen Stewart does a good job as Joan Jett, even looking like her real counterpart at times. She brings a swagger and edginess to the role, making me forget she's that same actress who stars in those TWILIGHT films. She proves that she's a capable actress here and hopefully she'll do more roles like this rather than the Bella Swan stuff we've been dealing with for years now. Dakota Fanning, as Cherie Currie [who was the only person the real Currie wanted to play her in any film, even before she was of age to be even considered], is simply phenomenal in this movie. I always felt that Fanning was the Jodie Foster of this generation, and THE RUNAWAYS may be the film where that looks to be a fact. Her sex kitten act and her descent into drugs and alcohol is unbelievably convincing. She smokes, swears up a storm, and doesn't hesistate flipping the bird. Her chemistry with Stewart is very good. And her singing is actually pretty good during the musical sequences. It's a very grown up role for such a young girl and she pulls it off with ease. I hope she stays out of trouble like other young starlets and stays the course, because I think she'll do some great things as she expands her filmography. And Michael Shannon as Kim Fowley is just incredible. He plays those creepy characters well, and this one is no exception. What's even scarier is that he actually looks like the real Kim Fowley. I really want this character to get his own film, and that's due to Shannon's ability as an actor. The other actors do well as well, but don't have enough of a character to really be anything of note. I will say that Scout Taylor-Compton and Riley Keough are the standouts in the supporting category. I just wish they had more to work with.

THINGS I'VE LEARNED WHILE PUBLICIZING MY CROTCH FOR PUBLICITY

- Joan Jett's friend's brother said that guys don't like girls who are tough, but girls who are soft. Tough or soft, it doesn't matter. Just as long as they aren't smelly, crusty, or yeasty, it's all good.

- "Rock 'N' Roll is a bloodsport." Since when did Jean Claude Van Damme become a musician? No wonder dance pop and hip-hop have taken over the airwaves!

- Sandy West masturbated in the shower in front of Joan Jett. So next time you see something forming around your shower head, it's not mold or grimey build up.

- Kim Fowley wanted the girls to think with their cocks. Obviously he's seen too much of Rupaul's Drag Race to realize that real women don't have bulges.

- Cherie Currie and Joan Jett snorted cocaine in an airplane bathroom. Obviously, they took the Mile High Club thing a bit too literally.

- Joan was pissed at Cherie for publicizing her crotch, instead of The Runaways music, in photos. If people didn't publicize their crotches, would Paris Hilton even have a career?

As a matter of fact, I agree with Joan on this one. Damn sex tapes...

THE FINAL HOWL
THE RUNAWAYS is a generic, yet entertaining biopic that I think more people should check out. While I wished the film more on the band and its music, the relationship between Joan Jett and Cherie Currie is actually quite interesting and helps moves the film's narrative along. Plus we get three solid performances in Fanning, Stewart, and especially Shannon that truly make this film worth a look. However, it's not the definite film about 70s female rock musicians [there's an actual documentary about The Runaways that makes for a nice companion piece], but it's still effective due to the performances and the excellent soundtrack giving this film a voice.