The Runaways [Blu-ray]
“I love Rock n Roll and I love this Movie!” - Jan Wahl, KCBS AM/FM and KRON-TV, San Francisco
“Rock ‘n’ roll fans of every gender and generation will identify with this.” - A.O. Scott, THE NEW YORK TIMES
“Stewart and Fanning have never been stronger.” –Michael Phillips, CHICAGO TRIBUNE
In adapting Cherie Currie’s memoir, Neon Angel, Floria Sigismondi focuses on three figures. Sensing imminent stardom, Sunset Strip impresario Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon) brings together blond Bowie fanatic Cherie (Dakota Fanning) with raven-haired rocker Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart). Manufactured bands weren’t a novel phenomenon in the 1970s, but the Runaways wrote their own songs and played their own instruments, paving the way for the all-girl outfits to come. With a mother (Tatum O’Neal) in Singapore and a perpetually drunk father, Cherie and her sister, Marie (Riley Keough), must fend for themselves. When the group heads out on tour, there’s no adult supervision, leading to drinking and drugging from California to Japan, where the crowds go wild, but just as they’re taking off in public, they’re falling apart in private. Cherie tires of Fowley’s tough-love tactics, while her bandmates resent the focus on their sexpot singer. The best thing about Sigismondi’s film is that her risky casting choices pay off: Fanning leaves her little-girl roles behind just as easily as Stewart breaks free from her Twilight shackles, so it’s too bad Jett has no back story and that the other players, particularly Sandy West (Stella Maeve) and Lita Ford (Scout Taylor-Compton), don’t register more as distinct personalities. Shannon’s Fowley, on the other hand, steals the show with his profane performance. For a film dedicated to female empowerment, that may not have been the director’s intention, but as Fowley says, “This isn’t about women’s lib; this is about women’s libido.” –Kathleen C. Fennessy
User Ratings and Reviews
1 Stars Don’t waste your time
This movie was a wasted 2 hours of my life. The acting was a disappointment. The plot–was there one? The pacing was so slow. If you’re looking for a good movie to watch, don’t waste your time on this one. It’s basically just about teenagers doing drugs, having sex, and ruining their lives. I was really excited to see Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning in it (I’m a Twilight fan), but I wish I’d checked more reviews before renting it.
4 Stars Little Girls Grow Up Quick
This movie is sad to watch in some ways. You watch teens create which is cool but they lose their way as usual when boundaries don’t exsist. There is a scene where Cherie, the lead singer, is at a store all loaded up on stuff, trying to buy vodka. The promise of so much can get used up and lost especially when we are young. The storyline is about the sixteen year old girls coming together to make a hard rocking band, with much of the music developed by Jett and Fowley. Fowley is a character who is into hisself and his idea and image of what rock is. He is the manager of the band and controls the young girls, who look at him as an authority figure. Cherie’s family is pretty much nonexistant, except for a sister who begins to emulate Cherie once she becomes known in the music industry. The big sister who had the pretty long blond hair, cuts and dyes it to look like her singer/songwriter sibling wearing huge amounts of eye makeup that doesn’t fit her features. It was a great score of music to listen to and it was fun to learn about the band and how they made it to full on concerts. The things I liked, I liked the songs, I would like to sing songs that were full of intensity and emotions. I liked the way they wore clothes and makeup. I liked the sushi place where they had plates and plates of sushi. Assortment galore. Japanese wine and noodles with music sung by geisha girls. The color and the band rocking was fun and lifted my spirits. They did a pile of drugs and I can’t explain it but I didn’t feel as bad. The absent parents and her too much freedom was sad but freedom felt good to watch, freedom to do whatever you want. The gigs and the interviews all seemed like a world that spelled excess. Cherie just has to bow out cus it was to much for her while the other girls kept kicking. Joan Jett and Lita Ford came out of the Runaways. I hadn’t heard of Cherie, yet she seemed to radiate charism and after treatment she seemed to have found her way. I liked the way she lip synched Bowie and her dead pan face when they threw the paper wads and a slow motion flip off. It was a good movie. I liked Dakota, she is a pretty girl and looks like Lindsey Lohan a little and Madonna in this flick.
4 Stars Good Rock & Roll Movie With Main Focus on the Characters Portraying: Kim Fowley, Joan Jett & Cherie Currie!!!!
This is a good rock & roll movie, that any Joan Jett fan would probably enjoy. I love rock & roll, Joan Jett and this movie. Being a true Joan Jett fan, I’m glad her character was protrayed very well. Joan is protrayed by Kristen Stewart. Cherie Currie (protrayed by Dakota Fanning), was the real center of this movie. Both of these actresses did a great job of protraying Joan and Cherie.
This movie was based on the book “Neon Angels”, which is based on the memiors of Cherie Currie. That is why she is the main focus of attention in this movie.
This movie is about how record producer Kim Fowley (a man, not a woman, protrayed by Michael Shannon), put together this band, with Cherie Currie being the lead singer. He really put them through a lot of stress, demanding better performances, etc. He really put a lot of pressure on Cherie Currie, which finally lead to her breakdown, her rebellion against Kim Fowley, and her leaving the band, which finally resulted in it’s discontinuance.
It ends with Cherie Currie listing to the radio, while doing some chores, working on a job, and she hears Joan Jett & the Blackhearts on the Radio, performing “I Love Rock & Roll”.
Bonus Material: Includes a “rockin’commentary with Joan Jett, Kristen Stewart , and Dakota Fanning”.
4 Stars Characters a Little Underwritten, but Captures the Spirit of the Adventure Well.
“The Runaways” tells the story of the 1970s all-girl band of that name, focusing on the relationship between guitarist Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) and lead vocalist Cherie Curry (Dakota Fanning), and on music producer Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon), who thought girls with guitars and a tarty punked-out lead singer was a great gimmick. The Runaways were formed by Joan Jett and drummer Sandy West in 1975, but the film’s focus is guided by Cherie Curry’s memoirs “Neon Angel”, on which the film is based, so the other three band members are in the background. It follows The Runaways from their formation until Curry left the band in 1977, so about two years. Director Floria Sigismondi, who also wrote the film, is a music video director. This is her first feature film. Joan Jett executive-produced, and Curry contributed her memoirs. Both women were very involved in the project.
Mercifully, Sigismondi did not cast a bunch of twenty-somethings to play the teenagers. Dakota Fanning was 15, the age at which Cherie Curry joined The Runaways. And Kirsten Stewart was in her late teens, so not too far off. I was never convinced that Kristen Stewart could play the guitar, but Fanning is a revelation. She could front a punk band. Among the cast, she steals the film. But “The Runaways” ability to capture the spirit of these young people and the music they made is its most memorable quality. Great 1970s period costumes and production design are combined with trippy lighting and gritty, close quarters photography. Every scene is not literally true, but the style does well to capture the mood of youth making themselves heard in a particular time and place. And Michael Shannon is great as America’s answer to Malcolm McLaren: hilarious, cynical, visionary.
The DVD (Sony 2010): Bonus features are a making-of featurette, an audio commentary, and a publicity spot for the film (2 min). “Plugged In: Making the Film” (15 min) interviews director Floria Sigismondi, producers, the principle cast, and Cherie Curry about the real story behind the film and about making the movie. The audio commentary is by Joan Jett, Kristen Stewart, and Dakota Fanning. This is worth listening to if you want more of the real story. Joan Jett comments when the film departs from reality. The actresses and Jett provide scene-by-scene commentary on shots, action and their experiences on set. Subtitles are available for the film in English and English SDH.
3 Stars Real Girl Power
I’ve never liked Kristen Stewart before; she often lets her hair do her acting for her, and the constant weary-exhaling-of-air she displayed in the first Twilight movie was really annoying at first, before becoming downright surreal. But she was born to play Joan Jett, and should be commended for a job well done - she rocks it out of the park. Dakota Fanning does typically good work as the bruised flower of the band, Cherie Currie, while Michael Shannon delivers his patented demonic intensity in fine form. The Runaways often plays very much like a VH1 Behind the Music episode, and the other band members are all but ignored (the lack of attention given to Lita Ford - who had some solo succcess after the Runaways broke up - is particularly glaring), but overall I enjoyed the movie: as cliched rock star bio-pics go, it gets 3 stars and you can dance to it.
Filed under: Blue Ray Movie Reviews