Chhhhherry Bomb!!!!

After months of going back and forth on getting this blog up and running I am finally making my first post. I think it is fairly appropriate that I am popping my "blogging cherry" with a review of "The Runaways" whose biggest hit was the song "Cherry Bomb". Eww cant believe
I just wrote that.
So I'm a big fan of Joan Jett....like a huge fan..."Bad Reputation" and "Little Liar" are two of my personal anthems. I'm such a big fan that I converted my six year old Hannah Montana loving niece into a Joan Jett fan.

When I read about the biopic based on The Runaways I was super excited especially when I heard that Kristen Stewart would be starring as Joan Jett because I think that girl is kind of a bad ass and if you're going to play the queen of bad ass you need to be one yourself.
Now I get that people hate Twilight but I really think that the actors should not be judged on the Twilight films, it's hard to make something out of source material that includes some of the corniest lines ever to be published.

But back to The Runaways, music biopics can be very good (Walk the line) but can also quickly fall into a kitschy costume piece that's more about big name actors wanting to play Rock N' Roller than about telling a story. The Runaways is a good movie, it's not epic and it wont turn the movie industry on it side but it holds it own which is not easy for independent movies in this day and age. Made for under 10 million dollars in the summer of 2009 the film rounded up a great cast, is visually gritty, honest and respectful of the story it is telling.

The movie serves as an inspiration/cautionary tale. Cherrie falls hard and fast, Joan stumbles but perseveres and becomes one of the biggest Rock N' Roll icons of all time(note I did not say female icons, Joan is too big for that, she is not a female rocker she is a rocker period.)
The strength of the film comes from the performances, Stewart as Joan Jett and Michael Shannon as the bands manager/svengali are the standouts.

Stewart serves as the spine/anchor of the movie and the band. She plays the role with the quiet intensity of the real Joan. She is vulnerable, open and I want to say raw in her delivery. In every scene that she is onscreen but not the focus of the scene you want her to be the focus. The role of Cherrie is undoubtedly more flashy and fun and has more screen time but the role of Joan has more depth (or is played with more depth) and more heart. Stewart literally becomes Joan, walking like her(like a boy), writing with her left hand, adopting an east coast accent, loses her own trademark ticks (lip biting and blinking) and taking on Joan's ticks.
An acoustic guitar player she learned how to play the electric guitar in 3 weeks so that she could do her own guitar playing and singing in the film. Her impersonation of Joan singing is so spot on it even confused me with her rendition of "I love Playing with Fire" almost identical to the original. For those who question her acting ability based on Twilight her performance in The Runaways is a great big fuck you....and an example of her believability and skill.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXE9W3Ryk6Q

Her standout moments in the film are fairly evenly dispersed but as Joan comes into her own toward the movies end so does Kristen. The breakup scene is my favorite, we see her in this dark studio looking OK and as things start to fall apart she angrily tries to keep it together. The lights come on and we see what time, drugs and life on the road have done to her. The moment where she jumps at the glass and finally says fuck you is one of if not the most powerful moment in the movie.
Other great moments include the her first appearance onscreen where she pours a bag of loose change on a thrift store counter and tells the shopkeeper" I want what he's wearing" pointing to a guy in a leather biker jacket we then see her running down the Sunset Strip as the title card comes up.
There are a multitude of moments and I wont mention them all because I want everyone to see this movie not just read about it.

Shannon is a scene stealer, I have not seen his previous work but dude owns the screen whenever he is on. His character could have become a complete joke because of his outrageous wardrobe, makeup and one liners but truth is Kim Fowley really is that out there. He is given what have to be the best lines in the movie and he delivers them flawlessly and dynamically like when he finds 15 year old Cherie in a club and knows he's found the final piece to the all girl band and exclaims "Jail fucking bait, Jack Fucking Pot!". He delivers his outlandish and sexists one liners without letting his character become the joke, examples of this brilliance are:

"You bitches are going to be bigger than the Beatles"
"You pussies showed those punks how to cock fight"
"I'm teaching you bitches how to think with your cocks"
'Men want to see women in two places, in their kitchens or on their knees. Not on stage with guitars"
"This is not about women's lib it's about women's libido" speaking to Joan about what they are trying to build together
"Do the death dance bitches" this is a scene where he pays teenage boys to throw garbage and poop at the girls so they can prepare themselves for hecklers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTcDyZJ5DOQ

OK so this getting pretty long so I'm going to say what really worked and what could have been better. What works:
This film is the first biopic of an all female band and it takes that honor seriously writer/director Floria Sigismondi weaves her tale well, infusing it with humor, heart and bad ass attitude. A music video director this is her first feature and her gritty yet beautiful imagery is stunning at times. Her musical performance sequences are amazing and casting the movie with two leads who could sing their own parts was a good move as no one wants to see lip syncing.
Wardrobe, for a movie with a limited budget they went all out,the pieces are true to the late 70's but they never come off as costumey (except the actual stage costumes).
The little details, the details that only super fans notice. They are plentiful in this movie, for example we see Joan enter the English Disco and we hear a cover of her future hit "Do you wanna touch me". Later in a moment of reflection we see her listening to music from the street, the song is The Arrows "I love Rock N Roll" which Joan covered and it became her first number 1. We also see her pick up a white Gibson guitar in her panties singing along to the song while jumping up and down on her bed, the guitar in question is a Gibson Melody Maker and it was her signature guitar during her rise to solo fame. We also see her in a bathtub reciting lyrics and writing a song, the lyrics she is reciting are to Joan's song "Love is Pain" That attention to detail really adds to the movie.

The title of the Runaways is a bit misleading as it is really the story of Cherie and Joan. However a bit more of the other Runaways would have good. Lita Ford only comes onscreen for about 5 lines(Ford would not sign off on the film) and the fictional bass player Robin Robins does not say one word in the whole film.

There are no clear notations of the passing of time but if you pay super close attention you may notice Joan's haircut changes subtly throughout the movie this is done to depict the passing of years, however very few will notice these details. It seems that mere months have passed when in fact the film spans approximately three years.
There is also an out of place sequence where we see Joan in a tub the image transitions to her body floating in an ocean. This fantasy sequence is odd because it is not a dream, hallucination or fantasy sequence.

Finally my thoughts on Dakota Fanning as Cherrie. Fanning has some strong moments, her drunken grocery shopping is a favorite moment of mine and she plays the innocent well. She also delivers in the musical performance scenes, like Stewart she does her own singing but does not impersonate Cherrie's voice which is good because Cherrie was not a good singer. But I don't think she was quite ready for this role. There is no difference in her portrayal of a drug free girl dancing in her room to a coked up girl dancing in a Japanese hotel. She shares good chemistry with Stewart and you believe in their friendship she also works well with Riley Keough (Elvis Pressley's granddaughter) who plays her twin sister.

So the good outweighs the not so good by a ton. Go see this movie! If not for the great music see it because it's about women, directed by a woman and executive produced by a woman.

There you have it my first ever blog post!! My next post is all about shoe porn and the shoegasm's it leads to.