The Runaways

Dakota Fanning......Cherie Currie

Kristen Stewart......Joan Jett

Michael Shannon......Kim Fowley

Riley Keough......Marie Currie

Stella Maeve......Sandy West

Scout-Taylor Compton......Lita Ford

Alia Shawkat......Robin Robins

Tatum O'Neal......Marie Harmon

Writer:

Cherie Currie (Book)

Floria Sigismondi (Screenplay)

Director:

Floria Sigismondi

Release Date:

April 9, 2010

Running Time:

106 mins.

I absolutely love The Runaways. Cherie Currie is my favorite member and I'm a long-time fan of Joan Jett. That said, I was very, very excited to see this movie. And I was not let down.

In the beginning the film takes on two narratives, one of Cherie and one of Joan. Cherie's begins with her getting her first period on the street and Joan's begins with her in a bar. '

Cherie enters her school's talent show, sporting a Bowie-influenced outfit, hair, and red paint across her face. Flipping off an unimpressed audience, she finally wins them over.

Joan goes to her first guitar lesson and is told that "girls don't play electric guitar." Needles to say, Joan is pissed off. More determined than ever, when she spots her chance in the form of manager Kim Fowley on the side of a club one night, she grabs it and doesn't let go. Teamed up with Sandy West on drums, the two begin to play.

They soon look for a lead-singer who presents herself as Cherie Currie, drinking a Mountain Dew on a bar stool in a club one night. She says she can sing and is told to come to a spot the next day to audition with a Susi Quatro song of her choice. There's then a sequence of Cherie dancing around her room to "Fever."

She gets to the audition location and is told that "we don't play this shit", meaning slow songs. Jett and Fowley write the famous "Cherry Bomb" right there on the spot, Cherie auditions, and the rest is fuckin' rock'n' roll history.

The events portrayed in the film are mostly as they happened in real lfie. The one thing that annoyed me was that of the presence of Robin Robins, the bassist. In real life, it was Jackie Fox, who didn't allow her likeness to be used in the film. Another thing is that The Runaways didn't break up after Cherie quit. In actuality, Jackie quit first and then Cherie, and Joan (now the lead singer), Lita, Sandy, and new bassist Vicki Blue, went on to record two more albums.

The acting is nothing short of fantastic. Dakota Fanning leads the film as the innocent yet startlingly fierce Cherie Currie, while Kristen Stewart attains Jett's trademark "cool" factor. Michael Shannon is also great as creepy manager Kim Fowley. I also want to give a special nod to Stella Maeve who played Sandy West and Scout-Taylor Compton who played Lita Ford. Both really channeled their counterparts and did a great thing with it.

The special features, while kind of sparse, are great. First there's a fantastic audio commentary with Fanning, Stewart, and Joan Jett. While the credits play, they all wonder why Sandy West, who sadly passed away from lung cancer in 2006, didn't have the film dedicated to her. Joan unofficially dedicates it to her on the spot, and it really is touching.

There's two featurettes, one called "Plugged In: The Making of The Runaways" (15 minutes long), which features interviews with Fanning, Stewart, Jett, Cherie Currie, Floria Sigsmondi, Michael Shannon, and more of the crew. The next is simply titled "The Runaways" and is a two minute "add-on" to the former featurette.

I bought the Blu-Ray, and the quality was astounding. The colors, especially black and red, are so deep and your eyes almost get lost in them. It really did an amazing job of looking like the 70's.

I will recommend this film to anyone who's: A fan of Kristen Stewart or Dakota Fanning, a fan of The Runaways, a fan of Joan Jett, a fan of the 70's, a fan of music, and/or a fan of film.

Five out of Five Stars

Source: Blu-Ray Disc