'Runaways' rocks hard, demands attention
California teen Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning) gets ready to rock. (Apparition)
The Runaways
Running time: 102 minutes
MPAA rating: R (harsh profanity, drugs and sexual content -- some involving teens)
On the Web
Dakota Fanning has been acting since she was 5.
Ten years later, while performing the stuttering, raw lyrics of the sexually suggestive Runaways song "Cherry Bomb," Fanning becomes an actress to be reckoned with.
"The Runaways," while not a great film, it's one that constantly demands attention. Personally, I would like to have seen an experienced feature filmmaker in the director's chair. Even inexperienced in sustaining narrative, however, video and photography artist Floria Sigismondi delivers something vibrant, dark and spellbinding.
With up-and-coming star Kristen Stewart ("Twilight") in black leather as budding rocker Joan Jett and Fanning (already an established child star) as blond bombshell Cherie Currie, Sigismondi unleashes intense, sultry rock 'n' roll and dramatic heat.
"The Runaways" is a coming-of-age film of two teen Southern California girls of the 1970s who hook up to become rock's pioneer girl band. The Go-Go's and The Bangles would follow. The Runaways forged the path.
Like all good music biopics, this one digs deeper than chronicling merely what happens on stage when five girls decide to rock it like the bad boys. Sigismondi, who also wrote the script, did her research grunt work. Part of that was Cherie Currie's autobiographical book "Neon Angel."
Sitting in the audience, I got the feeling that I was a fly on the wall in the shabby trailer home as The Runaways' angry, sexually charged rock sound was being born. Cherie (Fanning), fresh off a bad David Bowie lip-sync performance at her school's talent show, arrives without an audition song.
Eccentric, bombastic manager Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon) likes her hot look, though. It's a combination of sweetness and Bridget Bardot. So Fowley, barking profanities all the way, and Jett write "Ch-ch-ch-cherry Bomb" on the spot. It will become the fast-rising band's titillating anthem.
That's the tone of "The Runaways," the movie, as well. Sigismondi delivers cinematic intensity not in building moments, as many filmmakers do, but in dramatic flash fires. The flame erupts the first time when Joan and Cherie team up to forge a niche in rock history and again when life on the road, booze and boredom lead to personal co-encounters.
Unfortunately, this is a movie that doesn't end well. It just stops. Not with a thud, really, but with a nudge. A more experienced filmmaker would discover a way around the dead end instead of letting everything just screech to a halt. When it's hitting on all cylinders, however, "The Runaways" dares to blaze a trail through rock history, as well as personal triumph and turmoil.
Both lead actresses, who convince as singers and musicians as well as actors, are superb. Stewart and Fanning (yes, once little Dakota Fanning of "I Am Sam" and "The Cat in the Hat") don't just play these characters; they slither under the skin to become them.
Also, keep your eyes on Michael Shannon, who drew an Oscar nomination in 2008 as Kathy Bates' mentally unstable son in "Revolutionary Road." Shannon commands every scene he's in as Fowley.
Without Fowley's driving force, "The Runaways" would be like two sticks of dynamite without fuses.
"The Runaways," while not a great film, it's one that constantly demands attention. Personally, I would like to have seen an experienced feature filmmaker in the director's chair. Even inexperienced in sustaining narrative, however, video and photography artist Floria Sigismondi delivers something vibrant, dark and spellbinding.
With up-and-coming star Kristen Stewart ("Twilight") in black leather as budding rocker Joan Jett and Fanning (already an established child star) as blond bombshell Cherie Currie, Sigismondi unleashes intense, sultry rock 'n' roll and dramatic heat.
"The Runaways" is a coming-of-age film of two teen Southern California girls of the 1970s who hook up to become rock's pioneer girl band. The Go-Go's and The Bangles would follow. The Runaways forged the path.
Like all good music biopics, this one digs deeper than chronicling merely what happens on stage when five girls decide to rock it like the bad boys. Sigismondi, who also wrote the script, did her research grunt work. Part of that was Cherie Currie's autobiographical book "Neon Angel."
Sitting in the audience, I got the feeling that I was a fly on the wall in the shabby trailer home as The Runaways' angry, sexually charged rock sound was being born. Cherie (Fanning), fresh off a bad David Bowie lip-sync performance at her school's talent show, arrives without an audition song.
Eccentric, bombastic manager Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon) likes her hot look, though. It's a combination of sweetness and Bridget Bardot. So Fowley, barking profanities all the way, and Jett write "Ch-ch-ch-cherry Bomb" on the spot. It will become the fast-rising band's titillating anthem.
That's the tone of "The Runaways," the movie, as well. Sigismondi delivers cinematic intensity not in building moments, as many filmmakers do, but in dramatic flash fires. The flame erupts the first time when Joan and Cherie team up to forge a niche in rock history and again when life on the road, booze and boredom lead to personal co-encounters.
Unfortunately, this is a movie that doesn't end well. It just stops. Not with a thud, really, but with a nudge. A more experienced filmmaker would discover a way around the dead end instead of letting everything just screech to a halt. When it's hitting on all cylinders, however, "The Runaways" dares to blaze a trail through rock history, as well as personal triumph and turmoil.
Both lead actresses, who convince as singers and musicians as well as actors, are superb. Stewart and Fanning (yes, once little Dakota Fanning of "I Am Sam" and "The Cat in the Hat") don't just play these characters; they slither under the skin to become them.
Also, keep your eyes on Michael Shannon, who drew an Oscar nomination in 2008 as Kathy Bates' mentally unstable son in "Revolutionary Road." Shannon commands every scene he's in as Fowley.
Without Fowley's driving force, "The Runaways" would be like two sticks of dynamite without fuses.
Comments