Reviewing the film “The Runaways”

“I have to get back to my life,” Cherie Currie says turning to the door.

“This is my life,” Joan Jett says mostly to herself in a haunting tone.

 Those were the lines that stuck out to me in the movie “The Runaways.”

 I had been waiting weeks to see this film, and it finally went nation-wide on Friday, April 9. Was it coincidence or clever marketing “The Runaways” opened across the country, after a limited release on March 19, on the birthday of one of its stars Kristen Stewart? Whatever the reasoning or crazy random happenstance, it seems fitting that on her 20^th birthday Stewart grew up with “The Runaways.”

 I was afraid I would be disappointed with the film after all my anticipation to see it. Well, I wasn’t!

 The movie was crude, crass, stark, breath-taking and just plain damn good. Sure there were the clichés of sex, drugs and rock and roll. And it had all that, but it also had more.

Michael Shannon’s portrayal of the lecherous Kim Fowley was magnificent. He was in your face, in the girl’s in the band face, and just someone no one could escape or ignore.

Dakota Fanning was 15 when she filmed “The Runaways.” The same age Currie was when she joined the band. In her expressions was a mixture of childhood innocence and blonde bombshell.

The scene were Fowley and Joan Jett mix around with lyrics in the battered trailer to fit Currie, (the song became Cherry Bomb) who came to audition, was a true evolution of a song. Currie had practiced the Peggy Lee song “Fever” to sing, and when she announces to the girls in the band and Fowley that is the song she chose, they all grumble and take a step back.

That scene, and Currie’s song choice, was the first sign of the true distance between Currie and the rest of “The Runaways.” Joan Jett and the others in the band just wanted to rock, Currie wanted to find a place and her self. And just like most rock bands full of egos, no matter the sex, it soon becomes the downfall, something not even the music can salvage.

There is a lot of hype about the kiss Stewart and Fanning share in the film as Jett and Currie. The scenes are a mixture of curiosity and best of limited choices. And the gauzed camera angles and fading in and out on what is obvious sex scenes between Currie and Jett, show Jett as both a mentor and a strong influence on Currie.

As Stewart’s Jett laments at the end of the film, in a radio interview, we grew up on the road. And experimentation, whether it may be with drugs, alcohol or sex, eased the pain of loneliness and feelings of abandonment.

Stewart and Fanning are the future of Hollywood and in “The Runaways” they just may have cemented that claim.