The Runaways (2010)

I was never a fan of Joan Jett nor her music, but I’m oddly fascinated by biopics so naturally, I gave The Runaways a watch.  The movie is directed by Floria Sigismondi, who’s biggest claim to fame before this movie was a bunch of videos about David Bowie and Cheryl Crow.  It’s only normal that one be a tad bit skeptical before viewing a movie about an influential singer/artist, such as Joan Jett and Cherie Currie.
The movie chronicles Jett’s (Kristen Stewart) early days as a girl-rocker who doesn’t fit into any style but her own.  She’s desperate to make music.  One day, at a local club she meets a pseudo-famous music producer, Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon, better than ever), who claims he can make Jett a rock-goddess.  Fowley sets Jett up with a couple of other female-rockers, a drummer and a guitarist, as they plan their escape into rock lore.  The only problem with their plan is that they need vocals.  In steps Cherie Currie (played by Dakota Fanning, amazing as always), the girl with the pipes that is going to take Jett’s band to the top.   After deciding on a band name, The Runaways, the group agrees to go on tour around the region. After days on days of crazy partying, drug induced escapades, and gig playing the band finally signs a record deal.  The rest of the film chronicles Currie’s and Jett’s ups and downs as the music business chews them up and spits them out.
The Runaways is as much about Cherie Currie as it is about Joan Jett, even though Jett was inevitably the bigger star.  Fanning gives the performance of her career (and most provocative one at that) as the cute little girl who had never really done anything bad in her life before being hooked up with Jett and Fowley.  Her transformation from shy little teenager to larger than life rock star hooked on drugs, alcohol, and emotionally distraught is simply fantastic.  Stewart also gives her best performance here, displaying her lackadaisical acting style which really suits the part of Joan Jett.  Hell, we all know her from her role as Bella in the Twilight Saga movies where she plays a sexually frustrated vampire lover who’s depressed because she’s in love with a werewolf and a vampire.  What people don’t realize is, the girl can act.  Plain and simple.  She signed a contract for those Twilight movies, but she’s slowly but surely choosing her roles much better.  However great both Fanning and Stewart are in this movie, neither one of them come close to matching Michael Shannon’s level of intensity that he brings to the role of Kim Fowley.  He’s been in some crazy roles before (check out Bug,  Revolutionary Road) but I really think his role her in The Runaways takes the cake.  He’s larger than life while being “down to Earth”, if you can really call it that.  Without him, the movie is not nearly as good.  The movie never downplays the seriousness of having an all-girl teenage rock band in the middle of an era where drugs were prevalent and people didn’t exactly make the best decisions.  It’s an odd study into the 70’s as well.
I must say, Sigismondi hits this one out of the park considering it’s her first big movie with headline actresses such as Fanning and Stewart, I was not disappointed.  While the movie stalls a little bit in the middle, it starts and finishes up nicely and leaves you with a satisfied taste in your mouth.  A fancy little tidbit you may not know about the movie; the real Cherie Currie wrote the biography that the film is based off of.
If you’re a biopic fan, like myself, checking out The Runaways is a sure fire way to get your fix on some good music, great writing, and great acting.