Thursday, May 3, 2012

Movie of the Month - May - The Runaways

By s. Thursday, May 3, 2012 ,
"Girls nowadays, they don't have any role models. This band is self-empowerment, man - Aphrodite, Cleopatra, Eurydice! No more second-class status, sitting at concerts with asshole boyfriends who worship bands from a Popular Mechanics evaluation of amplifiers. The Runaways have the most chance of any group I've seen... To do with the Beatles did. To tear this world apart."

You probably noticed that for two months now there is a movie of the month image on the sidebar of the blog. Each month I chose a movie I think is underrated and provide the link to my review of it. The movie of the month of May is The Runaways, a very good film featuring wonderful work from Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning.
In 1975, San Fernando Valley teen Joan Larkin reinvents herself as Joan Jett, a guitarist who wants to form an all-girl punk band. She pitches the idea to a sleazy manager, Kim Fowley, who pairs her with a drummer and then searches for a face: he finds Cherie Currie, at 15 the perfect jailbait image for his purpose; by luck, she can sing. Two others round out the band, "The Runaways." Fowley books a tour, signs them to Mercury Records, and packs them off to crowds in Japan. Seeds of conflict sprout early: Fowley puts Cherie front and center in the publicity, she's soon strung out on pills and vodka, and jealousies arise. Without adult supervision, where can Joan and Cherie end up? (imdb.com)
A New York Times review of the film quotes Joan Jett as saying that when she listened to the first tape of Kristen Stewart singing one of her songs, she thought it was a mistake and that it was actually her.

Cherie Currie claims she collapsed onto her kitchen floor and burst into tears when she learned Dakota Fanning had signed to play her in the film - she is Currie's favorite actress.
Dakota Fanning borrowed a belt from Cherie Currie to wear in the film. Joan Jett recognized the belt and stated Cherie wore it constantly while touring with The Runaways.

Kristen Stewart made the white Sex Pistols t-shirt she wears in the film.
Although Kristen Stewart played guitar in the film and knew how to play the songs, she didn't record the guitar tracks for the soundtrack. Joan Jett stepped in and recorded the guitar tracks herself.
Review of the film - here.
Previous movies of the month:

13 comments:

  1. I haven't seen this yet. I wonder if it'll change my opinion about K-Stew, my friend who loves this movie thinks she's eons better here than in Twilight, well certainly can't be worse :)

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    1. She's actually a very good actress. The only one who people should hate on is Lautner, who is beyond any redemption as an actor.

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  2. Both Actresses were amazing. I wished more young girls saw this, because damn it we need more of them playing rock music.

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    1. We need more rock music in general with the crap that passes for music nowadays.

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  3. Sorry, but I thought this film was just okay. For being named The Runaways they ignored everyone else in the band. As someone old enough to have listened to the Runaways and I Love Rock and Roll when they were new, Currie actually was forgotten pretty quickly. Lita Ford is the second most famous Runaway. She became a solo star in her own right a few years after Jett did. The movie had nothing on Ford at all.

    I realize that one of the members became a lawyer afterwards (really) and she sued to keep her name and likeness out of the film. This limited them a little, but they still could have given some attention to the other two members of the band. Because they didn't I ended up kind of disappointed with the result.

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    1. I kinda liked the focus on two girls, but I did not know about the band prior to watching this. The Runaways, though is the the title may be interpreted to each of the members though, as they all leave something and run away to form the band.

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  4. As much as I had issues with that film, I did love that scene of Dakota Fanning lip-syncing David Bowie's "Lady Grinning Soul" and giving the audience the finger.

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  5. I haven't seen this yet, and I wasn't that interested in it because of Kristen Stewart and the way she looks in it- I agree it's a prejudice from my part, but hey, we all make mistakes. I might give it a try soon!

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    1. Why don't you like the way she looks in it?

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  6. I enjoyed this film. Both Stewart and Fanning gave fantastic performances. And I guess it's my favorite part of the former.

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  7. I quite liked this film when i first saw it, and have grown to really love almost every thing about it. Then again...I'm a sucker for glam rock, teen angst, and glitter. Really, though, I love how the layout of your blog seems to keep evolving! Awesome things happening here. I may have asked before (since i've been admiring from beyond the Google Reader for awhile), but did you hand code the sidebar? I've been trying to find a good widget to line up outside links and alterations, and have failed miserably. Figuring it may be time to dig back into the html...

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    1. Thank you! Yeah, i did most of it myself, it usually takes some time to figure it out, piece by piece. There are some websites with ready widgets and gadgets with the codes ready, but I mostly put my own things anyways and just read about where to paste the customized codes.

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