March 30, 2010: The Runaways
Except for a very brief time around 1983-1984, I’ve always been at least a decade behind on music. I spent most of the 1980s exposed to music from the 1960s. I spent the 1990s learning about music from the 1980s. I spent the early part of this past decade discovering all that I had missed in the 1990s. You might note that somehow I missed the 1970s. Well, not exactly, since the constantly rotating “classic rock” package of the top songs are inescapable, and I’ve made occasional efforts to immerse myself in funk and disco and punk rock with the result usually being disappointment. But one of the areas which leaves me fascinated but also typically not too excited is hard rock.
I’ve always appreciated such music in context – blasting from the radio of a classic car on a weekend afternoon, or over an energetic sequence in a movie – but I’ve never really picked apart what I like or don’t like about it, or where it came from. The Runaways brings us one perspective on the story of how that band fit into the development of the genre, as an intense flash in the pan themselves but also giving birth to the solo career of Joan Jett, who has been a big part of defining how women can fit right into the tough image of the rock and roll world.
Based on memoirs from Runaways lead singer Cherie Currie, the film obviously focuses on her but it is sensitive to the very different experience Jett takes from the same events which envelop the group during the band’s frenzied heyday. Currie dives in deep and burns herself out, pressured by family obligations and rejections and eventually triggering the breakup of the band. Jett tries to keep things grounded, insisting on keeping the focus on the music, and she is clearly the one with the determination and level-headedness to stick with this for the long run, as indeed turned out to be the case. That’s not to say Jett doesn’t cut loose and enjoy the adventure, but she keeps herself from going physically over the edge even if she struggles at times to keep things emotionally under control. The other members of the band are really reduced to little more than filler, as exemplified by Arrested Development’s Alia Shawkat not actually having any lines of her own in the entire film.
I didn’t know much about the history of the band, or how Joan Jett fit into it all, so this was educational, although I know I should take the story with a grain of salt. The band was assembled and trained by superstar producer Kim Fowley, then carefully matured in ever-expanding tours from the US midwest to Japan. They get a record deal, and that’s when the money and fame and competition among the band members starts to tear things apart. A lot of that struck me as very similar to what I’ve seen in “rock band biopic” movies before, likely because the particular personalities that tend to come together and form bands often do struggle with ego and money issues once they hit the big time. It’s that emotional explosiveness which enables them to create great music, and few and far between are the intense bands which can stay together for a long time through that.
So, let’s examine two things. The performances, and the point of the movie.
The performances are uniformly excellent, and that’s a big part of why this movie has been so well received. Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie and Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett absolutely inhabit their roles, and elevate themselves clearly beyond the teenage and child-star roles and images which they’ve previously struggled to overcome. These are career-turning performances by two young women who are already big stars, and a big part of it has to do with how they keep these girls realistic and reasonable in their portrayals. They are emotional at times but when they blow up at one another, it’s not artificial, and it’s not just to advance the plot. Michael Shannon is a force to behold as producer Kim Fowley, all “Bowie”d up with his makeup and crazy hair, but he makes it seem completely appropriate and his unrelenting energy spent on molding the young women to the image he has in his head drives them all insane at the start, but every one of them looks back and appreciates that work once they encounter tough situations on the road. As I mentioned, the rest of the band is relegated mostly to the background. I also was thrilled to see Robert Romanus in a tiny role as Jett’s guitar teacher. Romanus is best known to me and probably to most as Mike Damone from Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), and I haven’t really seen him in anything since but he brought a particular and necessary mix of sliminess and innocence to that role. Here, however, he’s the guy with a heart of gold that you always knew he was. I presume the connection and the reason he’s been dug up for this little role is related to him having been in Foxes (1980) with Cherie Currie (and more notably Jodie Foster).
But what is the point of the movie? I found myself specifically wondering this as I watched, which is usually not a good sign. To be sure, it viscerally captures the mid-1970s rock and roll energy, and it’s hard to believe that as recently as 35 years ago, women playing electric guitars was so unthinkable. The Runaways tells a story of a period in history, but to what end? I’m not sure I ever figured that out, and while it’s clear enough that the time box chosen is that of the existence of the band The Runaways (roughly 1975-79), the pacing and the story arc end up feeling like the story is unfinished. This can be chalked up to the scope of Currie’s involvement with the band, and while that’s almost an arbitrary distinction considering the continuum of people’s musical exploration, I guess that’s all we can ask of her and it’s reasonable territory for a movie. Jett wasn’t gunning for individual stardom. She wanted to play rock and roll and for the band to maintain its artistic integrity, and it’s clear that Cherie Currie understands and appreciates that, whether she did or not at the time, and that understanding comes through in this story and gives it a good deal of its power.
Mildly educational, viscerally energetic, tremendous performances.
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