Traducida al inglés por petición | Translated into english by request.
THE RUNAWAYS – 10/10
By Agueda Gamez (@aporeloscarblog) on 10/June/2010
Warning: I don’t have any willing to be objective while I write this review. I’m sorry. *Laughs*
I still remember when people at Joan Jett’s official forum started to talk about this, it was… I think, more or less, 4 years ago. I guess my weaknesses are evident by now, so the longest wait has been at the end, when it was announced that Kristen Stewart was going to be Joan Jett and after that, Dakota Fanning was chosen to play Cherie Currie, so for me this movie could not be more perfect. Especially because when an actor you like is going to play the part of one of the people you admire the most since your childhood is always so cool, isn’t it?
To me this movie is EPIC. And is already part of my favorites list.
Is going to – and already had – surprise to many people, and is going to shut up some people’s mouths too, wherever it will be shown.
Dakota is perfect in it… but is weird when Dakota Fanning is not perfect, LOL. A lot of people will freak out and will think, “Where did Hollywood’s most lovely child gone?”… Oh yeah, kids grow up, that’s the way it is. As she said once “I will have 30 some day” even if people freak out about it.
Michael Shannon is the definition of the perfect “scene stealer” in this movie, every time he is on the screen you forget about the rest in the background, the characterization and eccentricity… they just nail it!
Kristen Stewart is excellent, great, exceptional, splendid, superb… SUBLIME.
Ok, I just say it… and it feels so great!
The transformation is complete, she IS Joan Jett in the movie in EVERY single aspect… in such a level that is scary sometimes. (Especially if you know who Joan Jett is). Is a pity that some part of this transformation is going to be lost in the dubbing (I highly recommend to watch this movie in its original version)
Is especially with her performance that a lot of people are surprised, and people is stopping the criticism around her. Maybe in our country where Joan Jett is not that well known will not be that evident, but in the USA Joan Jett is pretty well know y “everybody” knows who she is, and how she is, and when things are evident you can’t denied them.
About the rest of the cast, I was really impressed by Stella Maeve, she is so cool, and Hannah Marks (maybe I’m under the effects of her reply in twitter ;P)
Riley Keough needs to make more movies, she is so talented… (Elvis hip moves are genetic? To those who don’t know, Riley is Elvis granddaughter)
Scout Taylor-Compton is able with a few lines to make you hate her character, and you have to have in mind that the story is told from Cherie’s point of view, and Cherie and Lita did never really got along well.
The drawback, Alia Shawkat is a complete waste in this movie… she just says one word, and is pretty clear that it was not in the script. Well, nothing is 100% perfect and obviously The Runaways’ (real) story wasn’t perfect.
The girls’ characterization is good, and you can believe the journey back to the 70’s. Is a story about “Sex, Drugs & Rock’n’Roll” and is not ashamed to show it.
The songs in the soundtrack are great, and those performed by Dakota and Kristen make justice to the originals.
You can feel the director’s touch, debuting with this feature film, but with experience in the music video world, in the cinematography, script and editing. Actually the main performance of the band, and inflection point of the movie, singing “Cherry Bomb” in Japan looks just like a music video.
Maybe you can consider as a mistake that the movie focus too much in Cherie & Joan, but the script is based in Currie’s biographical book, which was more focused, because of her friendship relationship with her, in Joan.
There were also legal issues during pre-production, as some of the members of the band don’t get along with each other in the present time, and they didn’t have all the rights to tell about the lives of Lita Ford and Jackie Fox, as is was supposed to.
This is why, I guess, in the credits, when they make a short mention about “where are they now”, they don’t say a word about Ford and Fox, but I don’t understand why there is no mention about Sandy West, whose rights they did, in fact, have.
Spanish here.
