JIM reviews film "THE RUNAWAYS"

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The Runaways

MY Rating: 7 of 10 stars (based on an advance screening of the 109-minute film).

Sex, Drugs & Rock ’N Roll — OVER & OVER Again…

This movie is “based” on a TRUE story, as written in the book “Neon Angel” by Cherie Curie about her time in an all-girl Rock band…

… Back around the 1930’s & ’40’s, there were a number of popular female bands (as shown in the movie “Some Like It Hot”). But, when Rock became big in the 1950’s, it was mostly on the backs (& throats & hands) of MALE bands & singers, & a fairly small number of female individual & group singers…

… This movie strives to tell the story of the rise of a female Rock BAND, which was eventually called “The Runaways”… Set in 1975, it tells how a teenage girl, Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart), decides she wants to play an ELECTRIC (rather than the typical acoustic) guitar & play real ROCK music, altho people try to discourage her from that plan…

… Kristen chances to meet a well-known Rock manager / promoter named Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon), who LIKES her idea for such a band & urges her to gather some other girls for it… In time, she meets & adds drummer Sandy West (Stella Maeve), Lita Ford (Scout Taylor-Compton), & bass player Jackie Fox…

… Michael looks over some photos of “hot” female movie stars, sees one of Brigitte Bardot, & decides what the band needs is a BLOND-haired lead singer… As fate (& this script) would have it, they chance to meet 15-year-old blond Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning), who loves to sing & tried to do a Bowie song at a talent show (where she was treated badly by the audience)…

… Cherie (Dakota) has had a pretty difficult life: her divorced parents seem to think mostly of themselves. Her dad (Brett Cullen) is an alcoholic, who’s periodically cared for by her sister Marie (Riley Keough). Her mother (Tatum O’Neal) wants to remarry and move to another country, which the kids have no interest in doing…

… Michael works to teach Cherie how to sing in a “TOUGH” way & act like a SEX object, to try to “sell” herself to a mostly-male audience. She practices a song Michael & Kristen have worked on called “Cherry Bomb” [which eventually became the group’s first hit]…

… He also shows the other band members how they need to get used to being attacked physically and otherwise by their initial listeners… This “teaching” period (for the under-16 girls) has some of the most INTERESTING elements of the film…

… After a while, Michael arranges for the girls to go on a TOUR playing some small venues. He sends along a Road manager named Scottie (Johnny Lewis) to help set-up the equipment— which he does when he’s not busy setting up his own SEXUAL encounters with Dakota (who at times is also similarly involved in some lesbian action with Kristen)…

… Eventually, with more coaching by Michael, the girls start getting really FAMOUS & appreciated, the first such all-girl hard Rock band able to fill large arenas of audiences…

… They even go on a trip to JAPAN (in 1977), where they’re met by masses of adoring fans (most of whom seem to be female in the film, for some reason)… There, they sing “Neon Angels On The Road To Ruin” [which turned out to be one of their last hit songs]…

… More and more, the girls (especially Dakota & Kristen) keep using DRUGS (pills, etc.), & that makes them less & less “reliable” as performers in certain ways…

… Troubles arise in the band when Dakota starts acting somewhat like a “DIVA”, doing special photos shoots, telling Michael she doesn’t want to do things the way he demands, etc. All that grates on the other girls & Michael, & Dakota in time LEAVES the group (& eventually works at a “regular” job)…

… At the very end of the movie, there are some “postscript” items which tell how Cherie (Dakota’s character) eventually wrote her book & worked to try to promote an ANTI-DRUG message to young people… And how Joan (Kristen’s character) eventually formed the Blackhearts & had a huge # 1 hit song “I Love Rock ‘n Roll”…

… I found this film interesting (thanks to some strong — if often “coarse” — performances by Kristen & Dakota & Michael)…

… But, a lot of it came across as REPETITIVE— the same type things shown over & over again. I’m aware part of that was to show the “burnout” of the group (& especially certain members of it)— but that all tended to relegate the movie into “just OK” territory for me overall…