THE RUNAWAYS follows the story of Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) and Cherie Curie (Dakota Fanning)
THE RUNAWAYS (Floria Sigismondi, 2010)
Opens Friday, March 19
www.runawaysmovie.com
Fashion photographer and video director Floria Sigismondi makes an inauspicious feature debut with the bland, cliché-ridden biopic of the first major all-girl group in rock and roll history, the teenage band the Runaways. In 1975, record producer Kim Fowley (a scenery-devouring Michael Shannon) introduced guitarist Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) to drummer Sandy West (Stella Maeve); they were soon joined by guitarist Lita Ford (Scout Taylor-Compton) and nubile singer Cherie Curie (Dakota Fanning). (Alia Shawkat plays bass player Robin, an amalgam of the band’s several bassists, which included at one time future Bangle Michael Steele.) Jett and Curie instantly bond, dreaming of great things while hanging out under the Hollywood sign before diving headfirst into the whole sex, drugs, and rock and roll thing. The film is based on Curie’s 2006 autobiography, NEON ANGEL, and Jett and her partner, Kenny Laguna, are among the executive producers, but that pedigree doesn’t help it from seeming forced and fake. Every scene is diagrammed, with no surprises or anything interesting to say. Sigismondi truncates the story to keep it at under two hours, but in doing so the plot takes gargantuan leaps that are completely unbelievable. Unfortunately, the film is more like Oliver Stone’s dreadful THE DOORS or Joan Freeman’s ridiculous SATISFACTION than Susan Seidelman’s SMITHEREENS or Lou Adler’s LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE FABULOUS STAINS. Of course, the soundtrack is terrific, with songs performed by the real Runaways as well as Stewart and Fanning, along with tunes from Nick Gilder, Suzi Quatro, the Stooges, the Sex Pistols, and David Bowie. In 1975, the Runaways exploded onto the music scene with “Cherry Bomb”; thirty-five years later, they return with a dud.