THE RUNAWAYS
BY CHRISTOPHER HASKELL
JUNE 24, 2010
Throw a 16-year-old into the role of Cherie Curie from The Runaways and imagine a trainwreck. Yet, watch the film and be damned that Dakota Fanning can truly act. Between Dakota Fanning and Chloe Moretz (Hit Girl from “Kick Ass”), I am not 100% who will have the best career-to-come. Dakota Fanning is the star of the show, not just story-wise; she earns it. Fanning is beyond her years and like her previous role in “Push,” I am intrigued with the woman she is growing into. Her abilities fit the part of Cherie Curie and, like with “Push,” her parts were the moments I looked forward to.
Kristen Stewart, on the other hand, makes acting look hard. She is the same amorphous character in every role she plays. She does make a good tom boy however (but I also thought she was a boy in “Panic Room”). “The Runaways” will remind you of other band films like “That Thing You Do,” “Almost Famous,” and “Walk The Line,” except there are major key points missing. Besides Fanning and Stewart, the other band members are irrelevant. This may have been the case in the real life telling of the story, but in the film, they had no real part until the band’s demise. The music was what you would expect from this piece, and the rest of the film seemed “by the book.”
Michael Shannon brought a surprise performance as the band’s manager. I was unsure about his presence in the film, but he won me over. Brett Cullen (“The Replacements”) plays Fanning’s father. To get a name like Cullen and hardly show his face is an insult. I was unaware of his presence until I looked up the film and saw his name. Johnny Lewis was a nice surprise as roadie/love interest. You may remember Lewis from his days on “The O.C.” I know I do. “The Runaways” is exactly what you would expect. Grunge music, foul language, and the female revolution. No more, no less.
RELEASE DATE
March 19, 2010
DIRECTOR
Floria Sigismondi
WRITTEN BY
Floria Sigismondi
BASED ON
“Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway” by Cherie Currie
STUDIO
Apparition
R
(for language, drug use and sexual content – all involving teens)
BIOGRAPHY
DRAMA
MUSIC
106 minutes
CINEMATOGRAPHER
Benoît Debie
COMPOSER
Lillian Berlin
EDITOR
Richard Chew
CAST
Dakota Fanning
Kristen Stewart
Michael Shannon
Alia Shawkat
Riley Keough
Brett Cullen
Tatum O’Neal
Johnny Lewis
PRODUCED BY
John Linson
Art Linson
Bill Pohlad
BUDGET
$10 million
Yeah. This movie wasn’t that great. Fanning put on a great performance, but I agree that the movie seemed to not focus on the whole band.The speed of the plot was disconcerting and didn’t really entail much realism. Some girls want to create a proto-punk band and start playing music and next thing you know Kim Fowley shows up and all of a sudden they become huge. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a pretty big fun of the Runaways and proto-punk acts in the vein of them (MC5, The Stooges, etc…) but I felt like there was something missing in it. I’d recommend Penelope Speeris’ Suburbia personally over this film. At least that film realistically portrays the punk scene in LA from the early 1980’s. She even took people off of the street for some of the acting. While the acting and plot aren’t solid, the overall settings of the movie really paint a picture.