No. 30 The Runaways (2010) 36 of 100

 

If you have never heard of the 1970s American rock band ‘The Runaways’ I wouldn’t be surprised but you should have read my Definite Article blog review for this film at least? No? Oh well. The Runaways never really hit it big and to my mind they were the band Joan Jett came from. Joan Jett had one memorable hit with her cover of ‘I Love Rock n’ Roll’ so you aren’t exactly talking about The Beatles here.

Still you don’t have to be massive to have an interesting story to tell, so let’s have a look.

It’s 1975 and Kristen Stewart’s take on Joan Jett is buying a leather jacket with some loose change. Meanwhile Dakota Fanning, who plays Cherie Curry is also looking to stand out, choosing to do a cringey lip synch to David Bowie at a school talent contest. ‘Talent’ is not something you would associate with these girls, but despite there being no discernible ability on show they are taken under the wing by producer Kim Fowley. He’s happy that Cherie is only 15 and describes it as a “jail bait jackpot”.

This kind of sets the tone for the film which sexualised young girls in a world of sleazy men accompanied to a soundtrack that includes Gary Glitter’s ‘Do Ya Wanna Touch Me’. Frankly no thank you!

Fowley is a strange fey character who wears make up. You presume he’s gay but later on they have him shagging a woman over a table for no obvious reason, except maybe to add to the mystery. Frankly I wasn’t that interested!

Fowley cultivates the girls into a band of sorts and soon they are playing house parties. Suddenly they have a record deal and tour of Japan. The jump is a bit jarring and you certainly don’t get the sense that the earned their big break.

Of course things only go well for five minutes before infighting in the band causes them to break up and ditch Fowley too. We meet up with the characters some time later with the still teenage Cherie working in a shop and Joan plugging her record on the radio. I think there’s meant to be a sense of ‘what might have been’ but when you hear their awful, awful music you are glad that they were stopped early.

I didn’t like this film much with the two leads looking like they were playing dress up box. They certainly didn’t convince as grungy rockers and although they did their own singing you rather wish they hadn’t.

For a band with only one memorable song, the stuttering classic ‘Cherry Bomb’, you have to wonder why they merit a bio-pic. The film itself does OK showing the seedy side of the music industry but to have teenage girls flouncing about in their panties for an hour came across as somewhat grubby.

Shannon was clearly miscast, and although he tries to provide some of his trademark mania he doesn’t convince wearing make up and flamboyant outfits.

It could be argued that this was a rites of passage kind of movie with our young cast learning the hard way about drugs and sex and rock n roll but it just seemed exploitative. Some scenes also beggared belief, with one band member being instructed on to pleasure herself and only realising she was gay when Farrah Fawcett was mentioned as inspiration!

Over all this one failed to chart – a bit like the band!

When is Shannon-On? - 14.33

Outcome? Dumped but still producing

Film 1.5/5

Shannon Stars 2/5