written on April 16, 2010

by Lorraine Mazza

photos/blog layout by Amanda Vontobel

I admit as a kid, I wasn’t too aware of The Runaways other than that it was the band Joan Jett was in before she became *Joan Jett* and all that encompasses.  I’m probably not alone in that regard since The Runaways story was sort of over before it began.  But I’m older now and have a much wider range of musical tastes, which leads me to rediscover bands that were once under my radar.  Such has been the case with The Runaways since hearing about the movie being made. 

 
The movie is based on the book Neon Angel: The Cherie Currie Story which I haven’t read yet, but plan to now.  Having that in mind, I understood it to be Cherie’s recollection of the experience.  According to an interview I read with Joan Jett,  she thinks it’s mislabeled as being a “biopic” but really more a story of herself, Cherie, and Kim Fowley, with the Runaways story as the backdrop.  So to me it seems they took what they could, told their accounts, and embellished things a bit for the big screen.  It worked.  Cherie’s tale is not unique, but it does come across as honest and heartfelt.  After all, she was merely a 15 year old impressionable kid who wanted to break out of her stilted family life.  She had a voice and wanted to be heard.  As it turned out, the voice she intended to use was forever changed into the raunchy style of music that Kim Fowley and Joan were creating.  The scene where she goes to sing with the band for the first time is hilarious, and shows the birth of their most famous song, Cherry Bomb.

 
Joan’s family life isn’t really mentioned in the film, just that her father had left.  We see Joan from the start trying to buy men’s style clothes, and pissing off her first guitar teacher by plugging in and letting loose when he’s trying to teach her to play On Top of Old Smokey on an acoustic guitar because…”girl’s don’t play electric guitar”.  In comparison to Cherie, Joan’s motivation to make it seemed more deeply about the music than just breaking free.  She had a specific goal and each time something threatened to kill that goal, she simply changed the course and eventually made it happen.  This is evident a few times in the film, as Joan seems to play the mediator  when things start to go south.  Cherie getting the most media attention, the band doesn’t feel like a band anymore, eventually leading to Cherie walking out on them.  Again, not unique but not any less difficult to watch.  Lead singers have been ditching bands for years, pulling the rug out from the remaining band member’s feet.  In Cherie’s case, I think it was for the right reasons.  She had finally gotten wise to how she was being manipulated,  it just completely sucks that it kills the dream for everyone else.  But for Joan, the dream could not be dead forever.  She quickly regrouped her priorities and went on to major success with her hit covers of I Love Rock & Roll and Crimson & Clover.  She also started up indie label Blackheart Records (with Kenny Laguna) when the big name labels wouldn’t sign her.  Perhaps they should have asked her guitar teacher what happens when you say “no” to Joan Jett.  Blackheart Records is still alive and kicking today.

 
I also thought the visuals were great.  The 70’s vibe was authentic and didn’t seem forced or retro.  The music is of course, mostly Runaways or Joan Jett songs.  One scene early on was particularly cool, Joan walks into a club and the Gary Glitter original “Do You Wanna Touch Me” is blasting.  Foreshadowing at it’s best!  I also liked how they didn’t shy away from showing Joan as being into women. Her friend kisses her early on, and it’s just a matter of fact kind of thing. And then when she meets Cherie, you can clearly see the attraction. But Joan has said in response to the kiss/love scene they share, that it was only that one time and they remained just friends after. The scene was done more artfully than sexy, and it worked perfect with the movie as a whole. But you do get the impression that Joan had a sort of protective thing going on for Cherie.

The actors all did a great job, which was especially impressive since both Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning are at the height of their fanatical fame with the Twilight series.  Joan reportedly gave Kristen direction on how to portray her, which clearly worked.  Kristen had Joan’s stance down perfectly and her singing sounded remarkably close to the real thing.  Dakota’s take on Cherie was also pretty realistic, and her singing as well seemed to work.  Michael Shannon as Kim Fowley was highly entertaining.  He was eccentric and sleazy, and according to the film was an integral part of finding the band’s sound, as well as marketing them as sexy jail bate teens.  Clearly this was way before Disney channel took the reigns of creating teen stars. 

 
Overall I thought the movie was really good.  It told one woman’s story, certainly not the whole story.  But it was entertaining, visually and musically, and all the roles were portrayed accurately.  For me it has introduced me to the music of The Runaways, which is what Joan had said she’d hope it would do.  So maybe they weren’t “the first” all girl rock band, or they weren’t the best musicians or singers. But they had the energy that is the essence of rock music.  They had a moment in rock & roll that helped set the course for many others to follow, and improve upon.  Surely bands still go through similar stories, maybe even exactly as it played out here.  But one thing has changed for certain, no one can say that girls don’t play electric guitar.

______________________________________________________________________