Jason KingThe Runaways (7/10)
July 15th 2010 21:07
:
Dakota Fanning is Oustanding!
Category: No Category
Besides the mega huge Knight and Day out this week in Australia there is also the "not overly marketed" THE RUNAWAYS starring Dakota Fanning and that vampire/ wolf tramp Kristen Stewart.
It is the story of The Runaways - an all girl rock band from the late 70's that started the career of Joan Jett and the brief career and near death of Cherrie Currie. Most people would have heard of Joan Jett as the stalwart of the world rock industry who is still performing with strength these days. However, this film is based on the biography of Cherrie Currie and while the film centres around The Runaways this is the Cherrie Bomb story.
The film is directed by Floria Sigismondi who is a champion of rock films. She is most known for her work on The Best of Sheryl Crowe and Best of Bowie. She captures with gusto the scene and period of the out of control collision between rock and pop and this band and Cherrie Currie has to be an influence for people like Pink and Gwen Stefani. The cinematography by Benoit Debie is just superb and I actually felt thrust back into the time.
The acting is out of this world. This is by far Dakota Fanning's best work and has definitely thrown her from child actor to adult in one foul swoop. Cherrie was only 15yrs old when approached in a nightclub by Jett and music producer Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon). Fowley chose Currie for her looks alone and they taught her the rest. Fanning plays the character superbly and just like everyone in the band she sung everything as they played everything. I seriously think Fanning deserves an award for this film - she is remarkable.
Likewise Kristen Stewart, or as most of you will know her, Bella, has broken the hold of Twilight and shows us she has way more talent than she shows us in the vampire quadrilogy. She literally IS Joan Jett, every mannerism is Jett - it is a superb performance but one that is in the background, as like I have said - this is the Cherrie Bomb story.
I have to also mention Micheal Shannon as Kim Fowley - this is an Oscar performance, he is insane, eccentric and perfect in this role. I think this role is better than his role in Revolutionary Road - he has so much strength in his performance and is the only male binding figure amongst the all female cast and he is so bloody good at it.
What lets me down majorly with this film is that it dies in the ass about two thirds of the way through. It is so visual and engaging for the first two thirds and the drug scenes start a rise to a crescendo that should have embraced the angst and anarchy of the age and rock scene but the film instead moves from MA15 rating to a PG as soon as that MA15 rating should have been smashing cymbals. For some reason this film slightly reminds me of Party Monster - god I love that film. But Party Monster went hard and this backed away completely contradicting what the girls were trying to achieve with the band.
It is also annoying that they hacked and condensed the girl's story from what I believed in the film took place in one year but was really just over 2yrs and 5 albums and constant touring - they also only briefly talk about Cherrie in the aftermath - she had a fairly successful career in the movie industry and a solo album with her sister (although that really isn't a solo album
).
I also feel sorry for Cherrie Currie - it is no wonder what happened to her with drug abuse - she was 15 for crying out loud and was brought on board purely for her "jailbait" looks - their manager and producer Fowley knew this would make millions. With abundant drugs and no supervision and a bunch of asshole parental units what else was going to happen? I credit her with eventually getting her shit together but it took her a lot of mistakes to learn from them.
This film is worth a viewing and it is a damn shame it falls flat at the end - this could have cleaned up at Oscars time or at least become a rock cult film if it had punched the audience in the stomach in the end as opposed to playing it safe. Out now at limited sites and worth 7 out of 10.
AND THE VIDEO CLIP FOR CHERRIE BOMB - GOLD!!!
It is the story of The Runaways - an all girl rock band from the late 70's that started the career of Joan Jett and the brief career and near death of Cherrie Currie. Most people would have heard of Joan Jett as the stalwart of the world rock industry who is still performing with strength these days. However, this film is based on the biography of Cherrie Currie and while the film centres around The Runaways this is the Cherrie Bomb story.
The film is directed by Floria Sigismondi who is a champion of rock films. She is most known for her work on The Best of Sheryl Crowe and Best of Bowie. She captures with gusto the scene and period of the out of control collision between rock and pop and this band and Cherrie Currie has to be an influence for people like Pink and Gwen Stefani. The cinematography by Benoit Debie is just superb and I actually felt thrust back into the time.
The acting is out of this world. This is by far Dakota Fanning's best work and has definitely thrown her from child actor to adult in one foul swoop. Cherrie was only 15yrs old when approached in a nightclub by Jett and music producer Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon). Fowley chose Currie for her looks alone and they taught her the rest. Fanning plays the character superbly and just like everyone in the band she sung everything as they played everything. I seriously think Fanning deserves an award for this film - she is remarkable.
Likewise Kristen Stewart, or as most of you will know her, Bella, has broken the hold of Twilight and shows us she has way more talent than she shows us in the vampire quadrilogy. She literally IS Joan Jett, every mannerism is Jett - it is a superb performance but one that is in the background, as like I have said - this is the Cherrie Bomb story.
I have to also mention Micheal Shannon as Kim Fowley - this is an Oscar performance, he is insane, eccentric and perfect in this role. I think this role is better than his role in Revolutionary Road - he has so much strength in his performance and is the only male binding figure amongst the all female cast and he is so bloody good at it.
What lets me down majorly with this film is that it dies in the ass about two thirds of the way through. It is so visual and engaging for the first two thirds and the drug scenes start a rise to a crescendo that should have embraced the angst and anarchy of the age and rock scene but the film instead moves from MA15 rating to a PG as soon as that MA15 rating should have been smashing cymbals. For some reason this film slightly reminds me of Party Monster - god I love that film. But Party Monster went hard and this backed away completely contradicting what the girls were trying to achieve with the band.
It is also annoying that they hacked and condensed the girl's story from what I believed in the film took place in one year but was really just over 2yrs and 5 albums and constant touring - they also only briefly talk about Cherrie in the aftermath - she had a fairly successful career in the movie industry and a solo album with her sister (although that really isn't a solo album
).
I also feel sorry for Cherrie Currie - it is no wonder what happened to her with drug abuse - she was 15 for crying out loud and was brought on board purely for her "jailbait" looks - their manager and producer Fowley knew this would make millions. With abundant drugs and no supervision and a bunch of asshole parental units what else was going to happen? I credit her with eventually getting her shit together but it took her a lot of mistakes to learn from them.
This film is worth a viewing and it is a damn shame it falls flat at the end - this could have cleaned up at Oscars time or at least become a rock cult film if it had punched the audience in the stomach in the end as opposed to playing it safe. Out now at limited sites and worth 7 out of 10.
AND THE VIDEO CLIP FOR CHERRIE BOMB - GOLD!!!
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Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by Deni
Abstract Magick
Cinema Herald
Loved the three leads, but I wanted to see more of Joan Jett and also more story for the other band members too. There was no plot points leading up to the final breakdown. All of a sudden they were jealous and the band splits. Of course we knew that would happen but it came out of no where in the film. They could have expanded more on the growing hostility.