Explore
 Lists  Reviews  Images  Update feed
Categories
MoviesTV ShowsMusicBooksGamesDVDs/Blu-RayPeopleArt & DesignPlacesWeb TV & PodcastsToys & CollectiblesComic Book SeriesBeautyAnimals   View more categories »
Listal logo
The Runaways review
154 Views
0
vote

The Runaways

The Runaways were the first all-girl glitter-bomb glam-metal-punk band. They were one of the numerous influential artists who suffered from a lack of respect and sales while they were together, but proved their worth as the decades went on. The fact that Cherie Curie, Joan Jett and Lita Ford all had careers post-Runaways break-up speaks to that fact. Granted, Joan Jett has been the only one to maintain a certain level of fame and success throughout. So, a film about them seemed like a great idea. In execution it is a fun film, but far from one of the greatest bio-pics I have seen. But the music is absolutely great.

Instead of focusing on the entire group, The Runaways tells the story of Joan Jett and Kim Fowley, but mostly focuses on Cherie Currie. Kristen Steward and Michael Shannon deliver great performances in their respective roles, and look almost creepily alike their real-life counterparts during the era, but Dakota Fanning is weirdly vacant, a weightless presence who only really grows into the performance once Currie becomes a rock & roll casualty. Fanning looks like the younger Currie, but she never really captures the tenacity, fire and spunk of the original. Instead of showing Currie as she actually was, we get a good-girl-gone-bad storyline which rings ever-so-slightly false and plays very formulaic. It also doesn’t help that Fanning is allowed to actually sing (most of) the songs chosen to be in the film. The real Currie sounded like a middle-aged smoker at the ripe age of sixteen, and Fanning’s real voice sounds airy, light. Her growl is like a kitten mewing, not the guttural sex-howl it needed to be. But her performance hits its stride and comes to a stunning halt in a sequence where she tries to buy alcohol from a store but is denied. The venom and barely concealed junkie-rage she brings out showcases that she could have played the role more accurately and been all aces in the role if given the chance.

This brings about my last problem with the film: the way that the rest of the group is thrown off to the side and rudely ignored during the last sequences. Lita Ford has two speaking scenes, the bassist (a composite character with no lines since the life rights couldn’t be acquired, and they flew threw so many of them) and Sandy West’s tragic death never get a proper mention. The filmmakers have forsaken the more interesting and dramatic truth for a film formula. It’s worth seeing to see the typical rock & roll film get a riot-grrl makeover. And did I mention that the music is absolutely fantastic?
Avatar
Added by JxSxPx
13 years ago on 5 May 2010 07:14