[In case it needs to be said: I don't agree with every word of everything I link to. --L.]
- The Runaways
- Not knowing about The Runaways is another one of those lost feminist moments and I am so glad that the new film opening today starring Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie has redeemed this moment for all of us. Written and directed by established video director Floria Sigismondi in her feature film debut, The Runaways is a kick-ass coming of age story of a bunch of young women who wanted to rock out at a time when they were no female role models. I knew I was in for a great ride when teenage Kristen as Joan took her quarters into a clothing store and pointed at the leather coat and pants and said I want that. In order to be successful the band was put together by svengali like producer Kim Fowley played with ferocity by Michael Shannon. He finds 14 year old blonde, pouty Cherie Currie sulking in a bar and recruits her for the band. What he does to make them a success is hard to watch. He takes their youth and burgeoning sexuality and shows them how to exploit it. That part is hard to watch because the girls seem and are exploited, but it was real, and it was 1975. (Also, Joan is still friends with Fowley so if she is cool with it, I guess I am.)
These young women broke boundaries for women. They were the first successful girl rock band. This film is a great slice of feminist history but don’t think it is a boring history lesson. Sigismondi’s experience as a video director was key here because the band sequences are great.
The Link(s): Fri, Mar 19th, 6am by Lee Salazar, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Terms and conditions beyond the scope of this license may be available at leesalazar.com.