Not Girl ScoutsBy John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time," "Cinema Classics," and "On the Marquee"
"You dogs would be lucky to get a gig singing in the shower. Go sell girl scout cookies." Manager Kim Fowley
The last half of the '70's was a time of growth for me, away from rock 'n roll and toward family and profession. For the Runaways, the first all-girl arena-filling rock band, it was a time of the sex, drugs, and . . . well, you know the clich? already.
The Runaways centers not on Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) but the drug-addled lead singer Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning). Although Jett had enough ambition for all five girls, Currie had the bod and the Monroe-like sexiness. Fortunately, after Currie abandons them for a confused notion of home, Jett finally goes it without her and pumps her fist for millions of "I Love Rock and Roll" in 1882.
For a couple of years this band made believers of those hard core rock fans who thought girls didn't belong in the same hall of fame as the Beatles. More sexy than that iconic band but less talented, the Runaways serve as a caution about the heady, amoral world of rock stardom.
This film seems more interested in seeing what the band looked like (director Floria Sigismondi has built a career in video) than in the development of character; my case in point is her missing opportunities to mine the Jett persona rather than the Currie anarchy. She does better with the charismatic manager, Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon), whose combination of abuse and love was crucial to their tough style and endurance in a man's world. The training sessions in his trailer are a fine representation of the incubation and the working-class roots of their lives and their genre.
I'm feeling once again that I don't want a ride back there in the Hot Tub Time Machine?the scene is scary and dicey. I'd much rather stay home and tap into my Internet connections with news of contemporary bad actors like Jesse James and Britney Spears. Now they would fit even better in Sigismondi's superficial world.
John DeSando teaches film at Franklin University and co-hosts WCBE 90.5's It's Movie Time, Cinema Classics, and On the Marquee, which can be heard streaming at http://publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/ppr/index.shtml and on demand at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/arts.artsmain Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.RR.com