Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning as Joan Jett and Cherie Currie, front girls of the 70s-era teen proto-punk sensation, The Runaways. “The sheer force of the girl-power energy… will leave you jumpy.” — Vanity Fair
You'll be hard-pressed to leave the theater and not want to pick up a guitar and scream 'Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb!'
Screened as part of NZIFF 2010
The Runaways 2010
“The Runaways tells the story of its namesake band – the all-girl teen band that launched Joan Jett’s career in the 1970s. It tells the age-old tale of sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll, but with the twist that it’s all from a young woman’s perspective. Directed by photographer and music-video director Floria Sigismondi, the movie stars two of the most sought-after young actresses working today: Dakota Fanning, who plays the drug-addled lead singer, Cherie Currie; and Kristen Stewart, the face of the Twilight film franchise…
Aggressive, raw, and amped up on frenetic – and sexual – hunched-punk intensity, Stewart’s Jett smokes, snorts, and struts with abandon… Then there’s Fanning as Currie, the kittenish blonde who fronts the band like a female crossbreed of Ziggy Stardust and Keith Richards… The sheer force of the girl-power energy… combined with the contagious ferocity of the music will leave you jumpy – in a good way.” — Andi Teran, Vanity Fair
“Even if you’d never heard them, you wouldn’t have had any trouble understanding what The Runaways were about: this was a bunch of tough-looking Los Angeles girls who may have been brought together by a sleazy, exploitative impresario named Kim Fowley… With their jagged feathered hair and satin jumpsuits, they were girls you wanted to be, less sugar and spice than glamour and sweat...
Even though there’s always some rock ’n’ roll wanker – usually a guy – on hand to volunteer, ‘I was on the scene, and that’s not how it went down,’ the best rock ’n’ roll movies are less about strict authenticity than about capturing a vibe. And The Runaways gets the vibe just right.” — Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com