One woman has stood out among all others a musical rebel. She wanted to run away. She had a bad reputation and didn’t care. She loved rock n’ roll. She was Joan Jett.
The musical biopic The Runaways follows the true story of Joan Jett before she became the world-renowned punk-rock sensation she was in the late 1970s. With little more than an electric guitar and a fleeting dream of starting the first all-girl rock band, Joan Jett is not your typical 1975 girly-girl. This dream seems unobtainable, until she meets with a man by the name of Kim Fowley, an eccentric, foul-mouthed record producer who is intrigued by her talent and drive. They recruit four other girls, including Cherie Currie, and the five girls form the first ever all-girl rock band: The Runaways.
The Runaways could easily be called a risk that paid off. Recruiting Kristen Stewart (Twilight), infamous for her lack of acting skills as the boring, monotone Bella Swan, to play the vulgar, sexual, tough, hard-rocking Joan Jett may turn some people off, but she is able to break her mold just enough to fit Joan Jett’s shoes quite well. Similarly, having Dakota Fanning (Push), America’s seemingly most innocent child star, play the drug-addicted, comparably sexual Cherie Currie seems like an inappropriate move. Again, she works very well in The Runaways, with her surprisingly strong vocals backing up an enjoyable performance.
The Runaways holds nothing back in its depiction of the band’s past: everything from the sex to the drugs to the lack of guidance is present. This movie is absolutely not for impressionable, young minds; the ideas it may give them are terrifying, but to someone who can watch the movie without being influenced by its very heavy subject matter, this story of an American rock icon is an interesting one.
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