A coming-of-age biographical film about the 1970s teenage all-girl rock band The Runaways. The relationship between band members Cherie Currie and Joan Jett is also explored.A coming-of-age biographical film about the 1970s teenage all-girl rock band The Runaways. The relationship between band members Cherie Currie and Joan Jett is also explored.A coming-of-age biographical film about the 1970s teenage all-girl rock band The Runaways. The relationship between band members Cherie Currie and Joan Jett is also explored.
- Awards
- 6 nominations
- Fat Employee
- (as Aaron Mouser)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaJoan Jett was irritated with the fact that Kristen Stewart was constantly in leather pants. She stated in the Blu-ray commentary that jeans would have been more accurate because she never wore leather pants. However, there are many pictures of Joan Jett from this period in which she is wearing leather pants.
- GoofsWhen copies of a Japanese magazine are distributed to the band members, the cover is on the wrong side, as in a western magazine. Japanese magazine covers are on the opposite side, as publications are all right to left.
- Quotes
Kim Fowley: Dog shit! Urine-stained dog shit! Rock 'n' roll is a blood sport, a sport of men. It's for the people in the dark, the death cats, the masturbators, the outcasts who have no voice, no way of saying "I hate this world, my father's a faggot, fuck you, fuck authority - I want an orgasm!" Now, growl! Moan! This ain't women's lib, kiddies - this is women's libido! I wanna see the scratch marks down their fucking backs! Now, do it again. Again. Like your boyfriend just fucked your sister in your parent's bed. Like you want a fucking orgasm!
- Alternate versionsThe UK release was cut, this film was originally shown to the BBFC in an unfinished version. The BBFC advised the distributor that the film was likely to receive an 18 classification but that the requested 15 classification could be obtained by making cuts in one sequence, to remove sight of two teenage girls sniffing glue. When the finished version of the film was submitted, all sight of glue sniffing had been removed and the film was classified 15.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Episode #18.8 (2010)
- SoundtracksRoxy Roller
Written by Nick Gilder and James McCullouch
Performed by Nick Gilder
Courtesy of Capitol Records
Under license from EMI Film & Television Music
The Runaways had some brief success in the late 70s, but they quickly nosedived because they were teenagers and simply couldn't handle the pressures and temptations of the 70's rock 'n' roll lifestyle, particularly Cherie. The movie successfully illustrates this. Of course "Cherry Bomb" was a fairly well known song but, beyond this, they just weren't that popular. They were a here-today-gone-tomorrow act; a minor blip in rock history. You could say they were a good "farm band" for the more popular Joan Jett and Lita Ford. Speaking of the latter, Scout Taylor-Compton looks uncannily like her, but the character is given short shrift in favor of Jett and Currie. While this is understandable given that the movie was based on Currie's book and the short 96-minute runtime, there's no excuse for ignoring Lita at the end when the movie cites what the characters went on to accomplish. Since Ford was the second most successful Runaway in the music business, second only to Jett, this is inexcusable.
Despite this grave transgression, the movie works because of the great performances of the principle actors. Shannon is particularly effective as the freakish Fowley (who passed away in 2015 at the age of 75). Unfortunately, with a movie that's only an hour and a half long they can only tell so much of the story. Currie described the real story as epic and that the movie is just a "lighter kind of flash" of what The Runaways were for two and a half years. Being a 70's rock biopic of teenage girls you can expect the sex & drugs elements with profanity, crudeness and a dismal pall. Like 1991's "The Doors," the movie doesn't show much of the fun side of rock 'n' roll.
If you can look beyond the vulgarity and ugliness, however, the movie has (some) heart. For instance, the genuine friendship of Jett and Currie, which can be observed in the phone call at the end; and the loving relationship of Cherie and her sister Marie. The sisters went on to record a couple albums together – 1978's BEAUTY'S ONLY SKIN DEEP and 1980's MESSIN' WITH THE BOYS – but their music career failed to go further due to Cherie's problems with drug dependency.
I liked this movie better the second time I watched it. It's too crude and dreary for my tastes and it lags here and there, but it makes up for it with effective performances and the warm relationships noted above. Plus it has a rockin' soundtrack. If you watch recent interviews, you'll observe that Lita and Cherie grew up to be palpably honorable, beautiful women. Joan's cool too, of course; she's just not my cup of java, although I like some of her songs.
The film was shot in the Los Angeles area.
GRADE: B- (6.5/10)
- Wuchakk
- Jan 22, 2016
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- $10,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $3,573,673
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $805,115
- Mar 21, 2010
- Gross worldwide
- $4,681,651
- Runtime1 hour 46 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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![Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart in The Runaways (2010)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTI3Nzc2ODI4NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMzkxNDMyMw@@._V1_QL75_UX90_CR0,0,90,133_.jpg)