Runaways, The

Aroview: A high-strung, hell-for-leather rock movie based on the short-lived exploits of pioneering girl band The Runaways and their two tearaway teen stars: sex kitten lead singer Cherie Currie (Fanning), and the formidable Joan Jett (Stewart).

While there’s nothing to distinguish this riot grrrl odyssey from the oft-told musician’s rise and fall (replete with bad influences, a maniacal impresario, and doses of sex and drugs), it does manage to capture both the raucous energy of live performance, and the seediness of seventies culture like no other film in recent memory. And although the band’s don’t-mess-with-me anthems eventually fizz out, it’s the chutzpah of the ingenue cast – namely, Kristen Stewart, whose X-factor makes perfect sense in the skin of Joan Jett – that's still worth making a song and dance about amidst the litany of rock cliches.

NZ International Film Festival 2010

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