Wednesday, March 17, 2010

For the sake of not having to write the same intro a million different ways throughout the rest of time, just know that this column avoids the overly long and sometimes dull process of full film reviews and instead opts to break things down based on what I thought going in, what happened while I was there and what I learned at the end of it all.  Thanks for reading!

The Breakdown - The Runaways

The Impression:

Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart (and a host of other young ladies whom I couldn't pick out of a crowd) turn the sex up high with this tale of Joan Jett's first band The Runaways.


The Reality:

You can't break free of the rock 'n' roll biopics ultra-tight death grip.  It doesn't matter what your subject or who your actors, the unchanging course of every music biography ever filmed is a force unstoppable in every way.  That said Floria Sigismondi doesn't strive to make anything different.  She tells a fairly predictable tale of Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart, really reaching for tough) and Cherrie Currie (Dakota Fanning), two young ladies who grow up too fast when their rock and roll band hits it big.  Unfortunately, even though the films rife with sexual innuendo, drug use, and of course, two girls making out, it feels defanged, trying too hard to be tough.  Story-wise, the film hurtles along, skipping over lengthy bits of music history with pasted together press clips and verbal allusions.  There's a good film in this story, it just isn't this one.

That said, Michael Shannon continues his unstoppable acting spree in his portrayal of Kim Fowley, The Runaways manager.  When he's not onscreen the film suffers, and badly.


The Lesson:

Hollywood needs a new spin on the film biopic.  If not, lets just bury the hatchet and forget the music happened before, well, right now.

 

Noah Sanders is the blog/news editor at Light In The Attic and a contributor at Sound On The Sound and the KEXP blog.  He also has his own Criterion-based film site, Criterion Quest.   If you'd like to contact Noah in regards to his writings here at Side One: Track One then please do so here.

- Noah Sanders - -



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