The Runaways

Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning are phenomenal as Joan Jett and Cherie Currie, founding members of the legendary all-girl rock band The Runaways. They look the parts, they do their own flat-out fantastic singing, and they come to the movie party guns a blazin’. Unfortunately, writer-director Floria Sigismondi’s film loses it’s way around the halfway point and becomes just another story of rock ’n’ roll excess and celebrity downfall. Yes, Currie’s descent into drugs was a quick one, but this film portrays her descent in an annoyingly obvious, paint-by-numbers manner. They fail to give us the real reasons why Currie succumbed to the bad side of fame. She just succumbs, and it’s unconvincing. That said, Fanning’s version of “Cherry Bomb” is remarkable stuff, and I thought she was lip-synching Currie. Ditto for Stewart, who nails every aspect of Jett. It pisses me off that the movie lets them down.