Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
Joan Jett and Cherie Currie, two rebellious teenagers from Southern California, become the frontwomen for The Runaways -- the now-legendary group that paved the way for future generations of female rockers. Under the Svengali-like influence of impresario Kim Fowley, the band becomes a huge success.
The Runaways captures the grimy, exploitative 70s rock scene with reasonable authenticity, anchored by strong performances from Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning. The cinematography effectively evokes the era's aesthetic. However, the plot follows a fairly standard rise-and-fall rock biopic structure without deeply exploring the band dynamics beyond Jett and Currie, and the ending feels abrupt and unresolved. Novelty gets a slight boost for focusing on a genuinely underrepresented chapter of rock history — female punk pioneers — though the biopic framework itself is conventional.