SPOILER ALERT
I came of age in the 80s listening to Joan Jett and the Blackhearts rock out to I Love Rock and Roll and Crimson and Clover. I was just a little too young to know that this was Joan’s second incarnation, the first being The Runaways the first girl rock band that formed in the mid 70s and flamed out spectacularly just a few years later.
Not knowing about The Runaways is another one of those lost feminist moments and I am so glad that the new film opening today starring Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie has redeemed this moment for all of us. Written and directed by established video director Floria Sigismondi in her feature film debut, The Runaways is a kick-ass coming of age story of a bunch of young women who wanted to rock out at a time when they were no female role models. I knew I was in for a great ride when teenage Kristen as Joan took her quarters into a clothing store and pointed at the leather coat and pants and said I want that. In order to be successful the band was put together by svengali like producer Kim Fowley played with ferocity by Michael Shannon. He finds 14 year old blonde, pouty Cherie Currie sulking in a bar and recruits her for the band. What he does to make them a success is hard to watch. He takes their youth and burgeoning sexuality and shows them how to exploit it. That part is hard to watch because the girls seem and are exploited, but it was real, and it was 1975. (Also, Joan is still friends with Fowley so if she is cool with it, I guess I am.)
These young women broke boundaries for women. They were the first successful girl rock band. This film is a great slice of feminist history but don’t think it is a boring history lesson. Sigismondi’s experience as a video director was key here because the band sequences are great. You really feel like you are at a rock concert and you can feel what they were doing was significant. The two main characters Jett and Currie wind up in very different places as the band flames out. Joan realizes that she can front a band and that she is ready to take her work to the next level. Cherie flees that band in order to save her life because she was drinking too much and doing too many drugs.
For Joan Jett this is a true story of empowerment and for Cherie Currie it is a cautionary tale. Kristen Stewart is great as Joan, the girl who just wanted to play rock and roll. But, the revelation in this film is Dakota Fanning. She is beyond good and in my book secures herself as one of the finest young actresses around. She can pretty much do anything. She takes Cherie from nowhere to the top of the world and then right back down to the bottom all in an hour and a half. But just to make clear for all Twilight fans out there, if you are looking to see Bella on the screen here you are going to be disappointed. Joan Jett is as far from Bella as one can get. And for those who think that Fanning is still a little kid, the sex, drugs and rock and roll will clear that up pretty quickly.
The Runaways opens today. To find out where it is playing click here.
Listen to my interview with director Floria Sigismondi here.
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Sweet. I’m gonna try to see this and The Girl with the DRagon Tattoo this weekend. Imma sneak in some canned wine into the cinema.
Loved your review, but am still a little “afraid” of the movie. Which can be good for me, so I’ll like the movie even more when I watch it.
And thank god Kristen is not doing her Bella impression in this movie. I like the actress, she is very “indie-oriented” when she’s not working on the Twilight Series. But when she is, I can’t help but think she’s overacting…
I don’t remember The Runaways (I was listening to Abba at the time) and don’t really understand the lure of rock and roll at all. To me this film sounds disturbing because, while it shows Joan Jett’s career taking off, which would be fun to watch, it also shows Cherie Currie getting shredded in the process, from the sounds of it. I am really tired of the suffering artist trope (I think it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy), and would really like to see films about artists where they can succeed without being exploited/getting hurt. I don’t know if I want to see this film at all now.
Melissa, May I make a request please? I wish you had written “Spoiler Alert” before posting this article. I plan on going to this film this weekend and I don’t usually like to read about the plot beforehand, so that I can enjoy the film’s journey. The only reaon I read your website was I thought it was going to be a discussion about the film opening and how it’s tracking, not the specific plot. By the time I realized what it was about, it was too late . (My eye skims ahead while my brain catches up) So maybe in the future give us a “heads up,” please. Thank you!
You’ll be fine, Linn. MS didn’t give away any more “plot” than what’s already in Wikipedia–since this is a feature film & not a doc, the joy comes from watching the way these lives are depicted on screen (not the bare facts of who did what when).
And you’ll be fine too, Anemone: Dakota Fanning creates a rich multifaceted character way beyond “the suffering artist trope,” & while Fanning’s Currie definitely goes on a journey, I would never say she gets “shredded in the process.”
Really, folks, I’ve seen this film twice already @ critics screenings & I’m taking friends with me to the multiplex tomorrow so I can see it again.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Found this article about the gritty women-centric shows on Showtime. Thought maybe you could link it here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704743404575127472943944014.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsThird
“Also, Joan is still friends with Fowley so if she is cool with it, I guess I am.”
Is this a justification for sexual exploitation of minors, sexual abuse, statuatory rape, molestation….that the victim is ok with it? That she is friends with the perv who perpetuated it?
I was tangetically involved with this group, saw things and although the music was great and Currie seems ok now, with her wonderful wood shop in Chatsworth, and Jett seems ok too, this doesnt make acceptablable Fowler and others behavior anymore than the fact that Drew Barrymore was shared by grips when she was 13 and” seems ok” now( and other young women on sets as well)This stuff must stop and ” being ok with it is the wrong approach” Heck Polanski said” she looked like a woman” Is this the criteria we want.
Saw it on Saturday night and absolutely loved it! Joan Jett is my new hero.
Have to say Melissa, the theater was virtually empty for the 6:40 pm show at the Palisades Mall in NY. I got tickets early thinking the Bella fans would be out in droves, but there were just about 20 of us, no teens.
I did the same thing when “Whip It” came out–I bought tickets early, thinking the “Juno” fans would pack the seats…
So I saw the film and really enjoyed it. I won’t even attempt to open the can of worms of whether the girls were taken advantage of by Kim Fowley. Since it’s factual, maybe it’s just best to show the truth and then let people decide for themselves… My boyfriend came, too, and while he enjoyed it, he wished the film had been more a telling of how the whole band came together, as opposed to just 2 women’s point of view. I suppose one could argue this means there’s an appetite for more of The Runaways films. Because there is definitely more to the story that hasn’t been told yet.
My spouse and I saw this movie this weekend and I though it was an amazing movie. Sigismondi got the look right (down to the grainy film), and Stewart, Fanning, and Shannon gave excellent performances. And I thought it was weird that nothing has been mentioned about the significance of the characters Marie and Sandy West
As Jan Lisa Huttner stated above, it was based on factual events, so the ending still has to show Cherie leaving the band (though the movie had a hopeful finale). So, I was puzzled when the review in Rolling Stone stated that although the movie started out with a bang, it ended in a predictable way. Well, how else could it have ended? Also, I think the matter-of-fact way the abuse (from Fowley and early audiences) the band had to go through was the only fair way to show it. I don’t think it’s an excuse, more to open people’s eyes to what kind of sh*t these girls (and they WERE girls) had to endure just to play their music. And this was a mere 30 years ago. Geez.
I also agree with Linn D.’s boyfriend that the title is a misnomer and I would’ve liked to see more about the other Runaways.
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