I don`t often review movies here at the lair beyond what I`ve been reviewing through my DVDregs project (which I haven`t forgotten about; I just choose to pass more time reading books than watching movies). I also feel that most movies that number down the Hollywood pipeline are such disappointments that I call very small from the film world anymore.
I was, however, greatly anticipating The Runaways.
I`ve been a HUGE Joan Jett fan since I first heard the opening percussion and guitars of "I Hate Myself for Loving You." And when that gorgeous, gravelly, smoke-saturated voice kicked in, my little Blackheart belonged to her. She is one of the original rocker grrls who still wails like nobody`s business, even at one notch past the half-century mark.
I didn`t hear about her early roots until much later (thank you, Interwebz!), but when I did see The Runaways, I had another squee attack. This is the ring that started the careers of Joan Jett AND Lita Ford?! Close my eyes forever, indeed.
So I began paying more care to the cinema chat swirling around this one, and that`s when I stumbled upon the teaser poster for this movie.
What a big hot pot of sexual innuendo!
Let`s begin with the tagline: "It`s 1975 and they`re about to explode."
Okay, this could be taken in non-sexual ways, especially if you accept that people viewing this poster know who The Runaways were in the music man and subsequently look at this statement from a strictly musical standpoint. 1975 was a year filled with some_interesting chart-topping musicians: Captain and Tenille. Glen Campbell. John Denver. K.C. & the Sunshine Band. Barry Manilow. The Carpenters. The Bee Gees. Melissa Manchester.
1975 was essentially an easy listening station`s wet dream. But something was brewing under the airfoil on both sides of the Atlantic_something awesome and raucous and loud. The punk rock scene hit huge in `75, with the show of groups like the Sex Pistols, Blondie, and the Ramones. I won`t try to roll on anymore about punk rock since I have already pointed out that music knowledge is not one of my strong points (I but knew about these 3 groups because I wish their music).
However, just this short bit of knowledge gives credence to the tagline`s statement that "It`s 1975 and they`re about to explode." The Runaways were most assuredly nothing like The Carpenters. Their different-from-mainstream sound was quick to explode onto the prospect and learn that filthy muskrat love hostage. Plus, their reaching on the music scene meant the arrival of the girls to the predominantly boys` club of heavy rock.
Then we get to the poster`s solitary graphic: a ripe, red, luscious, dripping cherry with a lit fuse for a stem.
Again, let`s take some Runaways knowledge. Probably their biggest hit was the song "Cherry Bomb." It not only shows up on every Runaways compilation out there, but Jett has included her renditions on both her greatest hit CDs. So here we take the visual representation of the proverbial cherry bomb, made still more striking by the dark background.
[Loba Tangent: I know how this bright red image against the dark ground is so reminiscent of the bill for that 1975 movie cult classic, The Rocky Horror Picture Show.]
[Loba Post-Posting Tangent: I just realized, after looking at the bill on a monitor with a brighter contrast than the monitor I was previously on that the dark background has the overlay of a record (you know, those crazy huge discs that artists now run and sculpt into bowls?) ghosted into it. Nice touch!]
Then you get the names of the two lead actors, Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, in a mere white sans serif, hovering above a roughly spray-painted and smudged stencil of the movie title, in matching cherry red paint. It`s amateurish but bold, which are definitely two things that could be applied to the other years of this band.
Of course, if we take the supposition that people look at this card have any thought of who The Runaways were or what they meant to the music world, this poster drips with sexual innuendo (literally!), just wish I originally said. Then again, with lyrics like "I`ll pay ya something to go for! Have ya, grab ya til you`re sore!" there`s very small way for interpretation here. The Runaways were fiercely sexual, often referred to as "Jail Bait Rock" for obvious reasons: They were all in their teens or barely 20, with original lead singer Cherie Curie only 15 when she joined the band. Gives that "make to explode" cherry a wholly different connotation there, eh?
Sex sells, and this poster definitely sells the gender of this film and this group.
Bonus Movie Review
I`ve already said a lot near the radical The Runaways with my poster review. So what almost the film? I cringe a short at calling this picture a proper biopic of the full group. It really isn`t.
The screenplay is based upon Cherie Curie`s Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway. Curie was alone with the set from 1975-77, so obviously basing the book on her recollections isn`t going to have the entire story. Also, it`s her memoir so it`s told from her position with her hold on what was happening. Jett was tapped to furnish extra information, to help flesh out the story (which is entirely appropriate since Jett was the group`s founding member with drummer Sandy West, who died in 2006 of lung cancer).
That being said, obviously the center of this film was Curie, with Jett playing a significant secondary role. I was really very surprised by this, for two reasons. One, Joan Jett is the most successful musician to fall from the original line-up and she was a co-founder, so you`d think she`d be more of the focus. Two, look at the teaser poster: Kristen Stewart received billing ahead of Dakota Fanning. I took this as an indication that her character would be more substantial. I suppose it truly was a topic of box office pull. Stewart is the bigger name thanks to those shitty twinkly vampire movies the Twilight franchise.
I`ve never read Curie`s memoir but I can simply accept that it`s a bit of a weak read based on the overall weakness of this movie`s screenplay. There`s an absence of cohesion throughout the storytelling. Also, the band members who aren`t Curie or Jett get supremely shafted in screen time as good as character development. Case in point: The biggest scene for Lita Ford is brief and tantamount to a hissy fit. Regardless of whether or not this was an accurate portrayal or exactly how Curie remembered this special moment, it makes Ford one-dimensional and rather unsympathetic. Again, though, since this is from Curie`s perspective, maybe that was the ultimate goal.
Negatives of the screenplay aside, this movie`s strength resides in those two names on the poster. I yet find Dakota Fanning unnerving. She`s literally the oldest young person I`ve always seen. However, she brings a fury and vitality to her portrait of Cherie Curie that is incendiary. Her transformation from mousy waif from a low family to corseted, drug-addled prima donna jail bait was nearly completely believable (hindered but by the obvious and unchangeable truth that Fanning isn`t all these things, so it`s really all act in the end).
As for Stewart`s performance as Joan Jett? This is the form of acting I wish to see more of from Stewart. She has an ability to completely immerse herself into a function to dramatic effect. For this movie, Stewart was Joan Jett, right down to the burgeoning of those amazing sexy-growly vocals that are synonymous with Jett`s solo career.
Jett herself is on disk as stating that the 1st time she listened to a transcription of Stewart singing one of the movie`s songs, she thought the producers had made a misunderstanding and sent her a recording of herself from those days. Whether this is movie hype hyperbole or not, both Stewart and Fanning nailed their musical impersonations, making their contributions to the movie`s soundtrack excellent additions.
Yes, I make the soundtrack already. It`s really quite good, a significant mix of movie Runaways and real Runaways music interspersed with songs from other punk/rock scions like Suzi Quatro (Leather Tuscadero!), The Stooges, Sex Pistols, MC5, and David Bowie.
Regardless of screenplay flaws, this is one raucous, vulgar, in-your-face, wild ride into the true centre of "sex, drugs, and shake and twine" and the brakes are out and there`s no stopping until the cliff appears ahead and we all go plummeting to our rock goddess deaths. But we`ll be so hopped up on whatever pills and spirits we can get our men on, we simply won`t care.
I remember the just thing that I would have loved to see more of was toward the end, when Jett began to be the prevailing character and we started seeing her metamorphosis into the soon-to-be Jett of Blackhearts fame. And when Stewart appeared toward the movie`s end, wearing that fuchsia blazer with the hyper-huge shoulder pads? I squeed a little. And immediately pictured this in my mind:
I love rock-n-roll, too, Joan. Oh, yes, I do.
Of course, we don`t need a biopic on Jett. We love what happened with her post-Runaways. But I wouldn`t complain if Stewart wanted to eventually stop hanging out with sparkly vampires and sink her teeth into another Jett-based role. Until then, though, I`ve added The Runaways to my wishlist and am looking ahead to fire up the soundtrack for my commute home. Drive me wild_
No comments:
Post a Comment