I had been meaning to see this movie for a while, and I had read some movie reviews about it, and the trailer looked so good. I watched it last night, and I was stuck making a decision whether to watch this or Good Boys. Good Boys is funny and this movie, The Runaways, was pretty serious. I will watch Good Boys another time though because I’ve really been craving biopics.
This film is based on Cheri Currie’s memoir about being a member of Joan Jett’s music group The Runaways. Honestly, I haven’t listened to much of Joan Jett’s music but this film made me appreciate her music even more. I’ve heard one of her more famous songs, “Bad Reputation,” in just about every movie known to man, every grocery store, on the radio, everywhere. It’s been in Shrek, Baby Mama, and so many other movies. And I’ve heard “I Hate Myself for Loving You” and “I Love Rock n’ Roll” so many times. And maybe “Cherry Bomb” in Guardians of the Galaxy. But I actually first heard of the song “Cherry Bomb” from watching the trailer for The Runaways, and then I recognized it when I watched Guardians of the Galaxy later on. But it wasn’t until this film that hearing Kristen Stewart sing her songs while playing Joan Jett that I actually became familiar with more of her music. Like, in the end credits, the song “Love Is Pain” but Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, I hadn’t heard that one before. In the near to final scene of the film, Kristen Stewart, as Joan Jett, is lying in the bathtub and singing lyrics to what would become her song “Love Is Pain.” It’s a beautiful song and I love it, too, because it’s in D major and I love that key.
Honestly, I saw Kristen Stewart in mainly the Twilight franchise and while I liked her in those movies, she really played Joan Jett well. I don’t know much about Joan Jett’s story, but Kristen embodied the musical energy that Joan Jett put in her performances. The chemistry and complex relationship between her and Cherie Currie (played brilliantly by Dakota Fanning) was played so well, and by the end of the film I wanted to listen to the song “Cherry Bomb” on repeat. Honestly I can’t really put Kristen Stewart’s performance of Joan Jett into coherent words. You know when you watch biopics you know that that one actor was meant to play that person? Like Chadwick Boseman, he was made to play James Brown. Or Jennifer Hudson was meant to play Aretha Franklin (I still have yet to see Respect, but one of my friends said Jennifer was really good in it.) I just felt like I was watching Joan Jett when watching Kristen Stewart perform. I also didn’t realize that Alia Shakwat played one of the members in the band; I vaguely recognized her face, but the last thing I saw her in was Broad City.
Honestly, I wouldn’t mind watching this film again. Maybe it’s because I saw Lovelace and really liked that film. Lovelace and The Runaways both take place during the 1970s and Linda Lovelace is briefly mentioned in The Runaways in passing. Of course, the storylines of these films are different, despite them both being biopics. The former is about Linda Lovelace and the abuse she dealt with when she was coerced into filming a pornographic film called Deep Throat. The latter is about a group of female rock musicians who defy gender stereotypes. However, both films deal with young women who don’t know much about sexuality, but then come into their sexuality. In Lovelace, Linda is in her early 20s and lives with her very religious family, who don’t want her seeing boys and value marriage over dating. However, she meets Chuck and he introduces her to pornography, and at first their relationship is strictly friendship but then he coerces her into the business without her knowing what really goes down in the pornography industry. It completes changes her, and while she did awaken to her sexuality, she also dealt with a lot of trauma and abuse at the hands of Chuck and the men involved in the filming of Deep Throat. The film also put tension on her relationship with her parents because no matter how many parties she was telling them she went to, at the end of the day, she was still working in an industry that went against their family-friendly religious morals and they were worried about her (until later on in the film, when they find out that she didn’t choose to go into the industry and that instead, Chuck forced her into doing pornography.) The film made lots of money and Linda became a star but Chuck still maintained full control of her success and her whereabouts, dictating where she could go and not valuing her independence. In The Runaways, Cherie Currie is 15 years old and lives with her parents and twin sister, Marie. She doesn’t get to spend much time with her family and her parents divorced. When she meets Kim Fowley and Joan Jett, her life changes and she becomes more confident in her sexuality. When they first meet Cherie, she doesn’t feel comfortable saying the lyrics to the song that Kim comes up with called “Cherry Bomb” because they are sexually suggestive. When she expresses her discomfort, Kim laughs at her and kicks her out, but then Joan tells her that it’s just a song and to just sing it just as she is.
However, this sours when Kim sets up a photo shoot where some photographers shoot sexualized photos of Cherie posing in sexually suggestive positions for The Runaways’ upcoming tour in Japan. Joan and the other band members get upset with Cherie for selling out and selling her body, and this is partly what drives the band apart. While Kim is definitely different from Chuck in Lovelace, he also is quite manipulative. Even though it seems like at the beginning he is empowering Joan, Cherie and the other band members he is actually driving them apart, calling them names and condescending to them. Towards the end, he calls them a bunch of dog c**ts (not gonna print the actual word but I’m sure you’ll find out eventually.) and Joan throws stuff at him. But he just cheers it on like it’s normal rock and roll behavior. It takes Joan herself realizing that Kim is driving them apart and preventing them from just being true to themselves and making music as friends.
Overall, this was an excellent movie.
The Runaways. 2010. Rated R for language, drug use and sexual content- all involving teens.
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