Kristen Stewart steals the show in The Runaways

Kristen Stewart steals the show in The Runaways

Film of the Week: Twilight star shows she can do gothic and gritty as Joan Jett



Music director Floria Sigismondi's first feature The Runaways is an exuberant and entertaining look at the creation of the trailblazing 1970s all-girl rock band of the same name.

Despite being born long after The Runaways split up, the film should still appeal to one of its key audiences - teenage girls - not least because of the casting of the Twilight stars Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning.

Stewart and Fanning play guitarist Joan Jett and lead singer Cherie Currie respectively. A scene in which the two young actresses kiss has already boosted the film's promotional campaign.

The Runaways focuses on Currie - the film is loosely based on her 1989 memoir, Neon Angel: The Cherie Currie Story - as the vulnerable, jailbait junkie teen whose downfall forms the central thread of the story. But it is Stewart, as the kohl-eyed Jett, who steals the show - proving that she can do sullen and gothic without coming across as bland.

Until now Stewart was best-known for playing Twilight's troubled teenager Bella. But her breakout performance in The Runaways has been widely praised and hailed as a shrewd choice. Serious and self-confident, the role of Jett should ensure that Stewart is no longer typecast as a pale, insipid virgin.

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING:

AO Scott, the New York Times: "Ms Stewart, watchful and unassuming, gives the movie its spine and soul. Cherie may dazzle and appall you, but Joan is the one you root for, and the one rock 'n' roll fans of every gender and generation will identify with."

Dennis Harvey, Variety: "Though sometimes her usual neurotic tics distract, Twilight's Stewart is a good fit for the tough but good-natured Jett, who carried on as frontwoman after Currie left, then launched a far more successful solo career."

Betsy Sharkey, the Los Angeles Times: "The good news is that Stewart is absolutely spot on as Jett... Fanning, unfortunately, is absolutely wrong as Cherie. Fifteen when the film was being shot, in a bustier and fishnets and heavy makeup, she looks like an innocent lured off Hollywood Boulevard for child porn, not the growling sex machine that - at least on stage - Currie was."

Tom Huddlestone, Time Out: "Perhaps owing to Sigismondi's lack of long-form experience, it never comes together. Isolated scenes look stunning but The Runaways never establishes a consistent mood, hopping from rebellious exuberance to doom-laden music industry critique." (3/5 stars)

Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter: "The film steers pretty clear of the more salacious side to the Runaways' reality. It doesn't linger long on the two teens' sexuality, expressed with both sexes and with each other. Instead, Sigismondi rushes back onstage for another performance or plays Runaways music over the film's many montages."