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Most of the buzz surrounding Sundance standout “The Runaways,” a behind-the-music movie about the formative years of the first all-girl rock band to make it big, has been focused on “It Girl” Kristen Stewart, who dyed her hair black, donned a lot of leather and scuffed up her trademark aloofness to portray a young Joan Jett. The Stewart-as-star publicity is a bait and switch: The film’s white-hot nucleus is in fact Stewart’s less bankable but more dynamic “New Moon” co-star Dakota Fanning, who hits a cinematic growth spurt as Runaways lead singer Cherie Currie and owns this 1970s-set jam session from top to bell-bottom.
It’s a sweet-and-salty, sinful treat to watch Fanning tear into her daredevil role, easily the most captivating and range-establishing of the 16-year-old’s still-tender career. As Currie, a classic (or is it cliché?) rise-and-fall case whose autobiography, “Neon Angel,” inspired the movie, Fanning vamps it up and plays strung out with the instincts of a fearless pro, while still retaining the doughy-cheeked naiveté of a girl growing up too fast (kudos to the filmmakers for actually casting teens to play the California-based bandmates).
Writer/director Floria Sigismondi, who got her start helming videos for David Bowie and Marilyn Manson, frequently makes the mistake of boxing her film into the paint-by-numbers framework of fact-based musician movies (rapid-fire rise to fame, magazine-cover montages, inter-group strife, oh my!), but when she does color outside the lines, she evokes a mood and atmosphere at once grimy and sexy, and presents a fiercely female artistic viewpoint (the first shot is a drop of menstrual blood hitting the pavement). She also gets a fire-breathing supporting performance out of Michael Shannon, who plays the band’s rabid, domineering manager, Kim Fowley.
Final ruling? Predominantly well-acted and -visualized, “The Runaways” is much more cherry than bomb, but it’s not without pits.
The Runaways
R
Three reels out of four
In area theaters March 19
Up in the Air
R
Available now
Though it was shutout at the Academy Awards, director Jason Reitman’s timely, timeless, edgy, funny and beautifully mature dramedy “Up in the Air” boasts last year’s finest script and three perfect performances from Oscar nominees George Clooney, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick.
Starring Clooney as a connection-averse frequent flier who fires people for a living, the film has unmatched relevance, yet Reitman never pounds it into your brain. As he slowly uncovers the humanity of Clooney’s character, the 32-year-old filmmaker calmly and poignantly taps into the humanity in all of us. The best movie of 2009.
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