The Runaways

Tagline: It's 1975 and they're about to explode.

Warning: I've now seen this movie 5 times, including the SXSW premiere with the cast and crew.

The Runaways movie has been gaining more and more momentum since Kristen Stewart shocked her fans with her new shag haircut she sports in the movie and added more fuel to the fire with the rumors of a kiss scene between the two leads, Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning. Not to mention it’s based on the all girl rock group of the same name which gave the world Cherie Currie and the one and only Joan Jett and they are both still alive and heavily involved with the production of the movie. The film debuted earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival and got rave reviews, especially regarding Stewart’s portrayal of Joan Jett.


This past week, the movie had three red carpet premieres in which the cast and crew jetted around the country to LA, New York, and Austin. I was lucky enough to attend the premiere at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas and attend the question and answer session afterwards with the director Floria Sigismondi, Dakota Fanning, Kristen Stewart, and Cherie Currie. The mood and anticipation was tangible inside the theater and I actually sat just a couple rows down from the infamous Kim Fowley, cane and zoot suit included.

I’ll come out and boldly say that this film was better than Almost Famous. It really captured the raw look and feel of the time period just perfectly. Sigismondi recalled that she told the makeup team not to cover the actor’s zits, which is just one example of how spot on and real this movie is.

The film is based partly off Currie’s autobiographical memoir of the ground breaking group and the foundation that Joan Jett built on to become the ‘Godmother of Rock and Roll’. The film mainly centers on Currie and Jett, their relationship and their coming of age stories. The plot starts off with the adolescent beginning of the ‘salt and pepper’ duo of Currie and Jett and how, with Fowley’s guidance, Jett was able to create the first all girl bad ass rock group. They pay their dues and fend off the abrasive machismo working against them as they rise to star status with their single “Cherry Bomb”.

The film does a really great job of reinventing the familiar rock and roll movies with their iconic rise and falls amidst sex and drugs. This film was standout because it didn’t take itself too seriously and had many humorous moments throughout the movie. It also didn’t glorify the sex and drug lifestyle or degrade it. It just showed how it was back then. The story was more about taking a stand and the cultural revolution they were living through at the time versus the old cautionary tale about sex, drugs, and stardom.

The film also heavily centers on the two main characters and their relationship. This is where the Joan Jett we know and love found her place in the world. Even though the story slightly leans on the perspective of Dakota’s fanning, at the end of the movie its almost like a twist as if to say, ‘did you catch that? It was really about Jett’s character and how she was influenced by this band’.

Floria Sigismondi did a fantastic job. She was put on this earth to merge film and music. This was her first feature film as she crossed over from her impressive music video past. She understands the importance of music in film and has an uncanny sense of how to work the two together to create something mesmerizing. The movie was captivating throughout, even with different moods, tones, and beats. She totally rocked out the 70’s and it really felt like it was shot 30 years ago instead of the normal period pieces that use some costumes and set pieces while still making things pretty and current. This movie was raw and just captured this time in a way I have not seen any other movie accomplish.

Kristen Stewart deserves the rave reviews she’s been getting. Most other critics out there are saying the same thing, but they’re just so right, ‘She nailed the character’. This was a tough role to play since Joan Jett is pretty well known and a very iconic figure in our history. She got the mannerisms down and really captured her attitude in the movie. The role, if not hard enough, was even harder since it had to show us the coming of age of sorts where Jett really found her place and become the woman we know today. Stewart really shows us something very different than we’ve seen before and gives us depth to the character. There were two scenes especially where she looked eerily like Jett, specifically the hospital scene and the bedroom dancing scene . . .for me at least.

Dakota Fanning has slowly progressed into more adult roles, first with Hounddog and then Push, but now she’s really proved her place in this business and that she can take on adult roles. Even though her character is less known by the public, this role was not an easy one to take on. Just Youtube The Runaways live performance of Cherry Bomb, which is what Dakota reveals she did when she read the script, and see if you could pull off that performance. Dakota played this character flawlessly. She gave us a character who was very naïve and reserved while at the same time embracing her own sexuality and vivaciousness on stage. Her character goes through extreme highs and lows in the movie and she really gave an amazing performance. I really think this will be a career changing role.

I’ve also got to mention Michael Shannon who did an amazing job with his controversial character, the band’s eccentric producer Kim Fowley. He was very dynamic and gave us a real character instead of a colorful exploitation. He also left the opinion up in the air for the audience to decide the difference between mentor and exploiter.

This was also Sigismondi’s screenplay and there have been critiques about the writing, but I think it really flowed and was in keeping with the time period and the movie. The dialogue wasn’t as important as the actions and attitudes of the characters behind them. This was a group of fifteen year old self-made rockstars and the movie captures it flawlessly.

The film was shot beautifully and the soundtrack and score worked amazingly well with the story. The film feels like its from the 70’s and captured the beauty and newfound truthfullness of that time. There are also some amazing camera angles in this movie, with special emphasis on two of the phone scenes where the camera is angled up from the phone receiver. It was just beautiful.

This was a raw look at these girls’ lives during this time and made for a hell of a ride. It doesn’t candy-coat any of the sex, drugs, or profanity that these girls lived through and its open and out there for our interpretation. I loved this movie and thought it totally rocked out and had the perfect timing with Stewart and Fanning and the perfect ages to come together to make this movie. I honestly can’t say which one did better because they worked well off each other and brought the characters to life. I’m going to go ahead and give it 5 out of 5 stars. I would recommend to anyone who enjoys rock and roll movies or raw fast paced music fueled bad-ass fun.