Floria Sigismondi and Joan Jett

Rating: 3/10 (24 July 2010)

This movie is a perfect example of why celebrities should not produce movies about themselves. Kritsin Stewart does a very good job, and I was pretty pleased with Dakota Fanning. And Michael Shannon again does a fantastic job. But after those compliments, there really isn't much good to say about the movie.
The book by Cherie Currie is a decent read, but clearly the starved for attention Joan Jett wanted the movie to be more about her. I love the music of the Runaways and I love Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, but in the last 10 years every time I've seen or read anything about about Joan Jett I just think "Man, she is not aging well emotionally". Worse yet, she attacks people who try to help her and when they stand up to her she plays the victim. She's the executive producer of the movie yet she spends most of the commentary pointing out what was wrong and complaining "I never wore leather pants".
But I'm not going to defend Floria Sigismondi. She isn't ready to direct feature length movies yet...or maybe she is, if she learned from all the mistakes on this one (and lets remember, the best directors usually flopped their first movie). In her defense, it was probably difficult to deal with Joan. The screenplay is bad. But I can't say its completely her fault, because again, Joan was obviously trying to change things, but the end product is flaccid and superficial. Its not super sleek, but it's not gritty like the "scene" was made out to be. Things are just too clean. Most specifically the opening shot. Where it could have been a powerful introduction into the story we're about to see, I spent several seconds thinking "Okay, somebody's painting something red" It's clearly paint, and then the rest of the movie is devoid of anything even close this gritty. Further more, there are moments that have great potential for emotional development, unfortunately the director choose "style" over "story" which is never a good idea.
You'll laugh when you're not suppose to, and you'll yawn during most of it. If you're a fan of the Runaways or Joan Jett (or Cherie Currie) you've probably seen the movie. If you're a movie person and don't care about the music, it's not for you. It's basically "Rockstar" with a smaller budget and characters with the same names as real people. By the way, if you're a Lita Ford fan, do not watch this movie.