All-Girl Rock Band the Runaways

Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning prove they are the Queens Of Noise in a biopic about 70s all-girl rock band The Runaways. The career of The Runaways was short lived, spanning only five years, but the impact they had on the music industry was immense. The all-girl teenage rock band helmed six albums and several hit singles such as Cherry Bomb, Queens Of Noise and Born To Be Bad, and helped shape female rock icon Joan Jett. Yet it was a dirty, tumultuous ride as shown in The Runaways, the directorial debut from Floria Sigismondi.

Set in Southern California in the mid-70s, Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) is a shy and sulky glue-sniffer who dreams of becoming a rock star like Suzi Quatro. She takes that burning ambition to music promoter Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon) and after pitching him the idea of starting an all-girl rock band, he starts to recruit teenage girls for The Runaways. He and Jett find their front woman in the stylish and dreamy Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning) and the young women are soon subjected to a rigorous training regimen where Fowley teaches them how to handle rowdy crowds, deal with hecklers and howl, wail and strut in a passionate brand of macho feminism.

Despite their musical talent, they all play their own instruments and write their own songs, Fowler sees an opportunity and promotes The Runaways as a cocktail of empowerment and exploitation. Dressed in hot pants, heels, jumpsuits and lingerie, the teenage girls become both a fetish and a rebellious rock `n' roll band, and subsequently take off. From homegrown success to global domination, including a huge fan base in Japan, the girls begin to struggle with their meteoric rise to fame, the easy availability of drugs, predatory men, lack of supervision and group dynamics.

The focus of the film is the individual stories of Jett and Currie, who are key members of the group and share an intimate relationship as friends and sometime lovers (which cumulates in a pash between Stewart and Fanning). Coming from a background as a photographer and music video director, Sigismondi has an eye for visuals and her competency in creating this grungy 70s world is similar to Catehrine Harwicke's effort in The Lords Of Dogtown. Her direction of the music scenes, which are all sung and performed by the actors, really captures the electricity of the band and their music. However, that is also her downfall because The Runaways retains a glossy sheen that seems out of place given the events unfolding on screen. The story too has been trimmed and moulded from Currie's autobiography, so that it is just rebellious enough, while skipping over some of the more confronting and compelling issues.

But the crux of The Runaways is the performances, with Shannon delivering a suitably sociopathic turn as Fowley and Alia Shawkat makes the most of her small supporting role. Yet it is Stewart and Fanning who steal the show. In case you did not know already, they make this film their declaration that they are no longer child stars, but rather young-adult actresses who deliver tour de force performances. Fanning's David Bowie-esque Currie is as beautiful contradiction, a vulnerable and undecided teenager off stage and a fierey sex kitten on it. Besides her uncanny resemblance to Jett, Stewart ozzes the rock `n' roll mentality and her brooding, attitude-filled performance is reminiscent of a young James Dean.

Flashy and feisty, The Runaways is an entertaining piece of pop art, but it fails to delve deeper into the real story. For an accurate account see former bassist Victory Tischler-Blue's documentary Edgeplay: A Film About The Runaways. Sure, from a technical perspective it may be one of the worst documentaries I’ve seen, but she captures the band’s truly amazing story in interviews and mind blowing revelations. Watch it. In other news, I interviewed her a few weeks ago and she describes Jett as a “fucking c#nt” so she deserves your props for that.

You can file this under strictly rumour for the time being, however, there have been some exciting 'leaks' regarding the cast for Robert Rodriguez’s Machete. For those of you playing at home, Machete is the latest project from my favouritist director in all the land and is an expansion of a faux trailer Rodriguez created to play at the start of Grindhouse. Like the spoof trailer, the feature film adaptation will pay homage to exploitation films of the 60s and 70s, probably in a similar fashion to the awesome Black Dynamite reviewed below. Rodriguez originally came up with the idea whilst filming Desperado and wanting to create a Mexican Jean-Claude Van Damme. It has taken until now to get the idea off the ground and into production, with there being no shortage of hype surrounding the project. The latest and most reliable tid-bit comes from a Bloody-Disgusting.com contributor who revealed the four main cast members as being *drum roll please*:

Danny Trejo

Okay, so I started with the biggest unsurprise ever as its common knowledge (to all with a cranium) that Trejo is taking up the title roll of Machete. A Rodriguez regular, the character and film were created around Trejo and his signature, erm, charm.

Michelle Rodriguez

Robert’s twin sister Michelle is said to be playing the character of Luz. I should point out here the above is a lie and despite the last name, the action-babe is in no way related to Mr Rodriguez... that we know of.

Jonah Hill

Everyone’s favourite Seth Rogen doppelganger is tipped for the role of Julio.

Robert De Niro

To conclude the cast gossip with a bang, the legend De Niro will star as Senator McLaughlin in the film which, in my humble opinion, is quite unlike anything he has done before. Ballsy.

So, if the above cast info turns out to be true — what an amazing ensemble! All very different actors with very different backgrounds, this should make for an exciting collaboration. Speaking of collaborations, Rodriguez will be co-directing the picture with Ethan Maniquis who has worked with Rod-man as editor on a bunch of his past films (Planet Terror, Sin City and the upcoming Shorts). Machete has a release date for sometime in 2010 but for those wanting a taste of what to expect I suggest you watch the spoof trailer (below) where it all began.

P.S. I know, I know. Just because I finally worked out how to post whole clips from YouTube straight to my blog, that doesn't mean I need to saturate you all with videos. That said, I just came across the wicked trailer for Jennifer's Body. I've been hanging out for this comedy-horror for quite a while... mainly because it's the second film written by stripper turned wordsmith Diablo Cody. Cody had her first major hit with Juno which nabbed her the best original screenplay Oscar back in `08. Unlike her uber-successful debut, Jennifer's Body is a tad darker and (from watching the trailer) I'd say a whole lot similar to personal fav Idle Hands. There's also a strong hint of the Canadian film Ginger Snaps which had a similar plot if you trade werewolf for demon. I guess it was only a matter of time before someone `adaptated' the horror franchise and gave it a mainstream makeover. Jennifer's Body stars Amanda Seyfried as a dorky highschooler who has to try and stop a cheerleader (Megan Fox) who is possessed by a demon and killing her male classmates. Sounds like a rad concept if you ask me but you can make your own mind up by watching the trailer below.
Thoughts??? In a completely un-movie-related comment I applaud the use of Cherry Bomb from The Runaways as backing music. They're one of my favourite bands ever and the song is utilised perfectly. Jennifer's Body has a clever release date of October 29 in Australia, right on Halloween (my favourite holiday).

P.P.S. Vazzzup readers? Since chameleon-comic Sacha Baron Cohen's latest movie Bruno is out in a few days, I thought I'd treat you to some vintage Bruno. I mean heck, you know people are going to be doing Bruno impressions at the water-cooler at work for the next few months so here's some material not from the movie. Plus, this is a nice warm-up to the type of humour you can expect from the Austrian Gay TV reporter. Enjoy.