I saw this at a screening the other night held by my school preceding a Q&A with Joan Jett. My life is rarely more kickass.
The Runaways chronicles the rise of the titular band, comprised solely of young girls playing rock music as good as any other rock that came out at the time. They became definitive of bitches with attitude and remained so long after the demise of the short lived band. Director Floria Sigismondi effectively articulated this bitchy disregard for the norm through her direction, which had a tone that connected the audience to the mindset and appeal of The Runaways leading up to and following the height of their popularity.
The central character, who wrote the memoir the film was largely based on, is lead singer Cherie Currie. Played by Dakota Fanning, seemingly desperate to break through her trademark of playing the token little girl, seems to draw from her experience of wanting to break through more boldly through her acting career to tackle this role. She approaches her character as the fish out of water, little girl trying to act bold in a bigger world, after an unexpected and rather rushed breakthrough based on her potential image alone. Once thrusted into the spotlight, it becomes clear that she quickly loses control over her life and becomes a ticking cherry time bomb. By the time she cracks, however, Fanning doesn't seem to transport this character through this arc with anything more than simply acting high/cracked out. Bearing the weight of the film itself on her shoulders, she leaves far less of an imprint than I think she's capable of and could have accomplished with this character. But it was a tough role.
Seeming more seamless was Kristen Stewart's transformation into rock goddess Joan Jett. Some would argue probably because...it's already her. I would probably take issue with that, but there's no doubt the role fit her like a glove and just because it might have been "easier" for her to take on this role doesn't take away from how good the ultimate product of her performance was. Throughout her short career she already seems to carry herself like an unassuming and unashamed bitch whose reached rock star status (not to be taken as an insult, at all). Making the character that much more her own is a simple testament to Stewart's natural capabilities, and given the more she seemed to layer her portrayal of Jett with — like the value of her ambition and unabashed devotion to the success of the band which she took a lot of responsibility for forming which was heartbreakingly betrayed as the band naturally fell apart — it's not as if this so called "easy" performance was handed to her on a silver platter. But, realistically, if you were never a fan of Stewart's acting style (and beyond Twilight, too), then you're not going to think of her too fondly in this film.
But easily the show stopper in this set is the recently appreciated character actor Michael Shannon, who plays the producer who "discovered" the girls and got the band on the tracks to success. Now, I'm someone who loved Revolutionary Road, but I hated his own performance in said film. I thought it was cartoonish, over the top, and rather distracting. No problems here as his crazed professionalism never seemed too out of the box nor above and beyond the already hectic tone of the film. throughout his character's orchestration of the band's rise. Shannon plays this character with a Wellesian hubris — that is, he was ultimately willing to compromise and show some more warmth only after he had gone too far with his own ambitions and dreams for the band. He introduced to the character strong traits that fed to the film's portrayal of the band's rise and kept it as irritatingly consistent as possible as to realistically have the film progress to the eventual breakup of The Runaways.
The thing that took me by surprise the most, though, is its cinematography (and I can see much of that being due to the vision of director Floria Sigismondi). It really placed you right in the center of everything; rarely with a film of this one's smaller scope have I felt more immersed into the settings. It communicated volumes of the settings and the states of mind of all involved, too. At first all the scenes of them at home seemed very familiar, nothing we haven't seen before. But their progression into rock stardom started being welcomed with more "edgy" angles and much tighter shots — which, to its discredit, seemed really obvious and "showy" when they first appeared. But eventually it managed to take over much more effortlessly (except the scenes where they were high), and one could see exactly through the eyes and perspectives of the girls portrayed more than the acting of the women portraying them ever managed to accomplish.
The cinematography also managed to communicate the atmosphere and mood of any given moment Sigismondi wished, and I think it is through this sharp directing eye that ultimately left The Runaways as an enjoyable experience for me. A solid B.
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