Ten years ago, Floria Sigismondi's The Runaways was released. The film's a rock biopic and literary adaptation of Cherie Currie's autobiography - Neon Angel. It portrays her life in the late 70s when she became the vocalist for the all-female rock band for which the film is named. Influential and memorable, the Runaways burned too bright and too soon, dissolving after two years of fame, a modicum of success and a whole lot of controversy. Joan Jett, a rock icon and the Runaways' guitarist, helped produce the film and, maybe because of that, Sigsimondi's script makes her a coprotagonist.
Matters of shambolic narrative structure aside, I'm glad The Runaways is so entranced by the mythos of Joan Jett. Otherwise, I might have never woken up to the genius of Kristen Stewart…
Dakota Fanning plays Cherie Curry with a drugged-out intensity. Aloof and strangely beast-like, she only ever comes alive when she's performing on stage. Her casting is a stunt of great ingenuity, capitalizing on her fame as a child actress to shock and provoke. Curry was a teenage songstress made to look like a decadent pin-up so it's logical that the film audience should feel uncomfortable when looking at her writhing in revealing lingerie. Casting the little girl from War of the Worlds certainly produces that effect. Fanning certainly seemed ready to give it her all, erring on the side of narcotized interiority. Her Cherie is often inscrutable, which might explain why she's so often outshined by the other actors.
While Fanning's role may be bigger, it's Kristen Stewart's Joan Jett that's the film's magnetic star. After some good early roles, Stewart became the laughing stock of many a pretentious cinephile when she played Bella Swan in the Twilight series. To this day, the ghost of that franchise follows her everywhere and there are still film festivals that present her latest arthouse hits as newfound proof that she's a good actress after all. If in 2020, you still think she's just the inexpressive girl from Twilight, that's your problem. Still, I must admit that there was a time when I was among those KStew skeptics.
When I first watched The Runaways, my only points of reference for Stewart's acting abilities were Jumper, the first Twilight movie and Panic Room. Drunk on the vitriol of internet cinephilia and snobbery, I easily dismissed her acting and checked this film mostly to watch Fanning and the glitz and glam of 70s rock. As previously stated, Fanning's good in this and the costumes are a dream, but surprisingly what most impacted me about this film was Stewart. The role of Joan Jett isn't even that difficult or showy, but the actress does magic with it.
Throughout the film, even when the camera is disinterested in Joan, our eyes were always drawn to her. Stewart's physicality exudes the tetchy confidence of a born rebel, though her eyes and voice suggest the insecurities of a youth so full of ambition and want that they can hardly breathe. For most of The Runaways, that may be attributed to good casting and even better direction, but it all changes as the story reaches its final act. The band falls apart and the dream dies as Cherie has a breakdown during a recording session. Bad press and the anger of her peers break her, at long last, and she leaves.
The scene lives and dies in Joan's reaction, her pleading and subsequent explosion of rage. Stewart brings all the fury in the world to this tantrum and she also brings vulnerability. Her anger is a blazing fire and its fuel is the brittle pain of disappointment. Joan believed in the Runaways and its demise feels like heartbreak. As her fury deflates and the camera follows her into a dimly lit corridor, Stewart's body loses its tension. Joan's defeated and her eyes shine in the dark. Had she been nominated for any acting prize, this would have been her clip, her rawness signaling a talent that couldn't be ignored.
Her acting wasn't a one-note show of pyrotechnics and shouting matches. This is especially true in the film's final moments, as we leave The Runaways with a bittersweet kiss. Cherie, now working in retail, listens to Joan on the radio. She calls in and the two former friends talk for the first time in years. With the subtlest hints, Stewart paints an entire portrait of adult regrets, a fractured friendship beyond repair and the surprise of someone used to block out the disappointments of the past. It's a mature piece of acting befitting the character's transformation.
That's when I fell in love with the great actress that is Kristen Stewart, watching her sing rhapsodies of painful feelings in hot pink and Joan Jett drag. I was besotted...were you?