THE RUNAWAYS (2010)
I´ve been a huge Joan Jett fan since I was a little kid and heard ”I Love Rock´n´Roll” for the first time. There´s just something about her that is very hard to define. She´s got that raspy voice and managed to fuse her punk sensibilities with her love for 50´s music in a perfect mix. So, when you´re kid growing up and listening to Joan Jett, inevitably that´ll lead you to The Runaways, the band she started out in. I´ll admit that I didn´t like them as much as I did her solo stuff back then, because they weren´t quite punk rock enough for me. But I will admit that I was very, very fascinated by them. In a way, they were almost too good to be true. I still say that when it comes to all-female rock bands, there´s no beating The Runaways. Man, it was like someone had picked them from an adult comic strip and brought them to life on a stage. You had Cherie Currie, Joan Jett and Lita Ford, all in the same band! Do you remember that song “School Days”? I always thought that if Josie & The Pussycats (you know that all-girl band from the Archie comics?) existed in real life, had a drug habit and oozed sexuality, this was what they would sound like.
But you know, no matter how fascinating I found The Runaways to be, I never ever thought that someday I would be sitting down to watch a movie about them! A movie starring that girl from the “Twilight” movies as Joan Jett, no less! And that little kid from “Man on Fire” (and the “Twilight” movies, as well) as Cherie Currie! If you would´ve told me that a couple of years back I probably would´ve said “Sure, in an alternate universe” and then I would´ve waited for the dwarves to appear and sing me a song on streets made of candy. But here it is: “The Runaways”, starring Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett, Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie and Scout Taylor-Compton (Laurie Strode from Rob Zombie´s “Halloween”) as Lita Ford. And you know what? It´s pretty goddamn entertaining!
So this is basically the rise and fall of The Runaways and it´s based on Cherie Currie´s book “Neon Angel”, so what we get here is Currie´s and Jett´s version of what happened. The other members of the band are featured as fleeting presences, at best. Supposedly, there´s a documentary out there called “Edgeplay” that lets the other members have their say but I haven´t seen that one. And to be honest, isn´t it Jett and Currie´s version of how it all went down that we´re interested in? I know I am, at least.
If you´re not familiar with the story about how The Runaways came to be, the band was masterminded by Kim Fowler (played by an amazing Michael Shannon in the movie) who brought the girls together and drilled them in how they were suppose to act, sing, behave on stage and pose. He was the one who found a fifteen year old Cheri Currie in a nightclub and introduced her to Joan Jett and the other girls. “Jail bait rock” he calls the music in the movie and I guess he´s right. You know, while watching this movie I thought it was actually pretty disturbing how young the girls were when they started in the band, considering how sexual Cherie Currie was portrayed in every picture that was taken. Naturally, I didn´t reflect over this when I myself was still in high school but it´s pretty icky today, when I am in my early 30´s.
But anyway, what makes this movie so much fun is the fact that it is surprisingly well acted by everyone involved. Dakota Fanning does a great job of capturing that sex kitten quality that Cherie Currie had and Michael Shannon is, as always, pretty fantastic as Kim Fowler. It´s definitely the most show off-y role of the film but where this part could´ve easily turned into a loud mouthed caricature in the hands of a lesser actor, Shannon manages to keep it on the right side of believable.
But writer-director Floria Sigismondi has an ace up her sleeve and that ace is Kristen Stewart. I think it´s time that I finally face up to the fact that this gal can really act! I know that in the “Twilight” movies she doesn´t do much besides looking sad and pale, while delivering her lines in a twitchy manner, but it´s a whole different deal here. She´s got that Joan Jett swagger down to a tee and if you´ve ever seen any of the old live footage of The Runaways, you can also see that she´s perfected that sloppy way of playing and holding the guitar that Joan Jett had. I´m telling you, it´s pretty goddamn impressive! I read somewhere that Joan Jett was an executive producer or something on the movie and that she stayed on set all throughout filming so that Stewart could hang out with her and observe her. Well, that sure paid off. Man, wouldn´t that be a cool job? To hang out with Joan Jett all day long…
I guess that one could argue with how much of this movie is actually true. Like when Kim Fowley puts the girls through “heckler boot camp” and brings a bunch of kids to their rehearsal space to throw empty cans at them while playing so that they can get used to that when they start playing the clubs. I´m not so sure that Fowley and Jett wrote their biggest hit, “Cherry bomb”, on the spot just so that Cherie could have something to sing for her audition but honestly, it sure makes for a more entertaining movie so I´m all for it. Why let the truth get in the way for a great tale, huh?
But in all sincerity this is actually a pretty fascinating tale. It focuses on Cherie Currie and basically how a young girl like her loses her innocence and Dakota Fanning does a hell of a job of portraying that. The movie opens with her getting her first period and by the end we´ve seen her trying to buy a bottle of booze for breakfast, steal painkillers from her dad and have girl-on-girl sex with Joan Jett, among other things.
When it comes to movies about music, I guess that my favorites is still “Almost Famous” and “High Fidelity” but that´s just because those movies are told from the perspective of a fan, rather than from that of a rock star as “The Runaways” is. That´s why I think it´s easier to identify with those films and why they hold a deeper emotional resonance with me. The one objection I have with “Almost Famous” is that it does get a bit too sappy at times. “The Runaways” doesn´t have this problem. Floria Sigismondi keeps the tone very well balanced, without getting preachy or sentimental.
It´s about time that The Runaways get recognized for what they were: a great band that managed to write great songs, be insanely cool and pave the way for other women in rock. Without The Runaways, no The Go Go´s and no The Donnas, so thanks for that…
Until next time: take scare!
Thomas