THE RUNAWAYS

This was a film that caught me off-guard, because I really did not expect much from “The Runaways”, and the only reason I saw it was because my wife has to watch everything that the stars of “Twilight” are in.  This film has two of the stars from “The Twilight Saga”, Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, and when it came down to her watching it, I decided I would sit down and watch it too.  I’m so glad I did because I really enjoyed what I saw. 

“The Runaways” is a bio-pic of the 1970’s all-girl rock band of the same name, where rocker Joan Jett first got her start.  Although this is a film about The Runaways, it really only focuses on two of its members, the aforementioned Joan Jett (Stewart) and the sexpot teenager, Cherie Currie, who was the original lead singer.  The film is actually based on Currie’s memoirs “Neon Angel”, so we only follow the band up until the departure of Currie from the group. The group continued to exist after Currie, but we are not shown any of this in the film, save for a conversation between Jett and Currie at the end.   

The two girls, Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, are phenomenal in their roles, especially Fanning, who is really starting to grow up, with this being her first “adult”  role to date.  Both of the girls re-recorded the songs in their own voices for the film, and both are great (although take that comment with a grain of salt, because my music knowledge is limited, not to mention my expertise on “The Runaways”).  The film is less about plot, and more about mood, and I suppose it could be accused of being episodic, but it basically shows the rise of the band, and then the ultimate destruction of Currie caused by the drugs, alcohol and fame thrown at her, but also because she is no longer around her family. 

The main standout from a technical point-of-view is the awesome cinematography by Benoit Debie (no surprise here, he is a fantastic DOP – although I hated his work in the woeful “Enter The Void”).  There were two shots in particular that blew me away, and both involved the eyes of the characters in frame.  One was a shot through a taxi window of Fanning’s eyes, during the rain, causing the raindrops to look like tears on the window, and the other was an extreme close-up of Stewart’s (I think) eye’s in make-up when performing on stage. 

The biggest issue I had with this film was the casting of Riley Keough as Marie Currie, Cherie’s sister.  The problem is not in her performance but in the fact that Marie is actually Cherie’s twin sister and yet the actress chosen to play that part looks five to ten years older than Dakota Fanning – it didn’t work at all.  Overall though, this was such a positive experience and in the end, shock horror, I ended up liking this film much more than my wife did, so much so that it is in my blu-ray collection.  It’s definitely worth a look.

Ranked 18 in Top 25 of 2010