I would say that this is easily the biggest film at Sundance 2010, and because of that it was hard as shit to get into. Lucky for us, a fellow film journo had an extra ticket which I snagged from her. Working off only 3 hours of sleep I rolled out of bed and onto this adventure.
The movie stars Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett, and Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie, the two famous faces of The Runaways. It chronicles the events leading up to them coming together as a band, the first tour, getting signed and the eventual breakup. There isn’t a whole lot of synopsis I can give you that you probably don’t already know.
The film isn’t perfect. Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning give great performances and I cant really say anything bad about them.The only downfall of the movie is how they tell the story. They spend 3/4 of the movie showing the band form, start writing songs and play their first shows. Then the final 1/4 of the film is the demise of the band and Cherie leaving. The ending felt super rushed, like they had to cut so much to get it to some time constraints.
Of the two, I would say that Kristen Stewart gives the better performance as Joan Jett. I was also a little bothered by the uneven telling of Cherie Currie’s story, and less of Joan Jett’s. It didnt really even out in the end, and Dakota Fanning is on screen for much more time which might be way I prefer Stewart’s performance.
I am going to take a moment to RAVE about Michael Shannon in the role as Kim Fowley, the band manager/producer. He literally stole the film with every scene he is in. He demands your attention, and this is one of Shannon’s greatest performances to date. Looking at photos of the real Kim Fowley, Shannon pulls off the look to perfection.
I absolutely loved the first 3/4 of the film, its shot beautifully and does a great job of telling the story of how the band came to be. If it weren’t for how rushed the last 1/4 of the film felt it would be damn near perfect. The music in the film is a collection of songs from The Runaways, and a bunch of classic 60’s/70’s songs mixed in. Its a great rock biopic that I wish they had made a little bit longer instead of rushing the end of the film/story.
I knew Joan when she was doing gigs with the Blackhearts in Long Island and her manager Kenny Laguna was selling her discs out of his trunk in the parking lot. She owned two outfits- a black satin type jumpsuit w/silver fringe for the first show and red fringe for the second show. Her Bassist Gary, and lead guitarist were the key to her success and on stage motivation. Kenny twisted her into some strange creature who agreed to fire the rest of the band-hire contract musicians- and control Joan…too bad…Also Kristin was much too attractive for the part of Joan….