The Runaways

In adapting Cherie Currie's memoir Neon Angel, filmmaker Floria Sigismondi focuses on three figures: impresario Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon) and the pair he brought together—blonde Bowie fanatic Currie (Dakota Fanning) and raven-haired rocker Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart). Manufactured bands weren't a novelty in the 1970s, but the Runaways (which expanded to include other members) significantly wrote their own songs and played their own instruments, paving the way for the all-girl outfits to come. With a mother in Singapore (Tatum O'Neal) and a perpetually drunk father (Brett Cullen), Currie and her sister Marie (Riley Keough) must fend for themselves. When the group goes on tour, there's no adult supervision, leading to drinking and drugging from California to Japan, where the crowds go wild. But just as they're taking off in public, the Runaways are falling apart in private. Currie tires of Fowley's tough-love tactics, while her colleagues resent the focus on their sexpot lead singer. The best thing about Sigismondi's film is that her chancy casting pays off: Fanning leaves her little-girl roles behind just as easily as Stewart cuts her Twilight shackles, although Jett herself has no backstory and the other players such as Sandy West (Stella Maeve) and Lita Ford (Scout Taylor-Compton) don't really come across as distinct personalities. Still, this offbeat paean to female empowerment is recommended, overall. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by Joan Jett and costars Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, a “Plugged In” making-of featurette (16 min.), a promo featurette (2 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release are a “movieIQ” trivia track and the BD-Live function. Bottom line: a solid extras package for this rock biopic.] (K. Fennessy)