"The Runaways" DVD Review by Telegraph

"The Runaways" DVD Review by Telegraph

There's a slightly icky script, but enough material for a meaty biopic. Rating: * * *

It’s LA in 1975 and brooding teen guitarist Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) and her hard-edged all girl rock group are looking for something that will shoot them to stardom. They find it in Cheri Currie (Dakota Fanning): an insouciant blonde - who basically has spades of sex appeal. Living off uppers and downers, bullied by their feckless manager (Michael Shannon as Kim Fowley), The Runaways practise and play hard; they secure a record deal, marking one of the first forays into all female rock.

The plot of this true story is far from novel (band climbs to fame, descends to drugs and rivalry) but there’s enough material to make for a meaty biopic – which filmmaker Sigismondi doesn’t quite pull off. Part of the problem is the film’s discrepancy: it examines '70s women’s lib, but relies for much of its effect on lingering shots of the sparsely clad Stewart and Fanning.

While the script can be icky ('I feel like a peach’, says Cheri, 'a bruised peach’) and Michael Shannon’s performance is gratingly hammy, the cinematography mesmerises: giddying jump cuts and disorienting montage capture the heady flavour of the '70s rock scene. Kristen Stewart’s quiet toughness and devotion to wayward Cheri casts a tender look at female intimacy.

Source => Telegraph / Via => PattinsonStew