Average Rating: 6.2/10
Reviews Counted: 177
Fresh: 121 | Rotten: 56
Viewers expecting an in-depth biopic will be disappointed, but The Runaways is as electric as the band's music, largely thanks to strong performances from Michael Shannon, Dakota Fanning, and Kristen Stewart.
Average Rating: 6.5/10
Critic Reviews: 34
Fresh: 22 | Rotten: 12
Viewers expecting an in-depth biopic will be disappointed, but The Runaways is as electric as the band's music, largely thanks to strong performances from Michael Shannon, Dakota Fanning, and Kristen Stewart.
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The story of the groundbreaking '70s female rock group the Runaways is recounted in this River Road Entertainment production focusing on the duo of guitarist/vocalist Joan Jett (portrayed by Twilight's Kristen Stewart) and lead vocalist/keyboardist Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning) as they navigate a rocky road of touring and record label woes under the malevolent eye of abusive manager Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon) during their teen years. Acclaimed video artist Floria Sigismondi directs from her
Apr 9, 2010 Wide
Jul 20, 2010
$2.0M
Apparition
All Critics (178) | Top Critics (35) | Fresh (122) | Rotten (57) | DVD (9)
The Runaways is cool, but the Runaways were just so much cooler.
Aside from following the clichéd (if real) storyline, The Runaways is plagued by something of a split personality, thanks to its two young stars.
Excess is abundant in photographer and music-video director Floria Sigismondi's energetic debut.
There's a flinty integrity in this movie's look at the rock grind, and Stewart and Fanning are intensely watchable.
While Jett and Currie emerge as blurry, half-formed characters, Shannon's Fowley brings the contradictions the Runaways embodied into sharp, biting focus.
Jett, Currie, and the others are teen outcasts in Me Generation Los Angeles, aching to break out of their lives. You can feel their frustration, their need to make an unholy racket.
Fanning makes Currie's fame- and pharmaceutical-fueled transformation/liberation at once exhilarating and terrifying.
... A typical story of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, but it's told with style and energy that keep it from bogging down amid the clichés.
[It chooses] to merely nod at the more complicated, strange and exciting aspects of the band's story and spend most of its time touching on the usual stuff
In age-appropriate casting, Fanning doesn't put a platform boot wrong in her portrayal of a valley girl rock chick (circa. 1975) growing up way too fast, with neither the inclination nor the wherewithal to slow down.
The film might be intended as a cautionary tale, but that tends to get lost amid the lurid thrills and tacked-on happy ending.
Aside from Stewart transforming herself into Jett, once the band is formed, there is little about the film that captures the atmosphere of the time period.
Director Floria Sigismondi brings the tale of this real-life pop-punk band to the screen with the traits of a vapid, glossy promo video. And it works! A shame about the length then.
It's not so much a shock to the system as a series of practised strokes, yet -- for moments at a time -- it makes you squirm happily in your seat.
It's miles too long and doesn't know when to shut up, but The Runaways is too much fun to really do any damage to the world.
Sigismondi's dramatised account of the band has echoes of Almost Famous as it captures a tangy flavour of the hunger for fame and the bittersweet reality of success in the Seventies rock scene.
The Runaways se mora preporučiti, iako prije svega svima onima koji su prije toga bili prisiljeni gledati Sumrak, odnosno iz terapeutskih razloga.
For the most part it works, thanks to painstaking recreations of hazy disco-era dive bars, faded roller rinks and seedy motels, plus a ballsy performance by Kristen Stewart.
Given that the band were more about attitude than music, there's not a lot of substance here.
Fanning captures Currie's surly "Cherry Bomb" style effectively, particularly when dolled up in the notorious white basque that Currie is remembered for; Stewart is even better as the furiously smouldering Jett.
There's a wham, bam, thank you, man, quality to this music biopic that makes it a pleasurable rock rush that's easy on the eye, even if it fails to do much more than skate the surface of the band of its title.
Maybe The Runaways is Linson's way of showing that he can make a success of this subject, and I think he has done, with a film which shows how brutal and sexist rock'n'roll is.
The opening scene. A drop of menstrual blood hits the pavement. It´s not necessary much more to understand that it´s a movie about girls. With a sort of disappointment, I already knew what to and what to not expect, an apprehension confirmed right in the next scenes, dialogues between the sisters. It´s
February 6, 2011Super Reviewer
Being a quasi-fan of the Runaways back in their day, I couldn't wait to see this film. Its fairly amusing and thoroughly entertaining; maybe the best aspect is the outstanding performances of the two leads. I'm not sure about the accuracy of every scene in this biopic, but that's unimportant. Director Floria
December 29, 2011
Super Reviewer
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