Better if your're a fan..

Rating: 5/10 (17 January 2011)

When a young Joan Larkin renames herself Joan Jett and manages to introduce herself to music manager Kim Fowley the ball is well and truly rolling. 15 yr old Cherie Currie auditions for the band and The Runaway are born. For this young girl group, success comes eventually with a recording contract and a tour of Japan where they realise the magnitude of fame, something that perhaps takes it's toll on the young band members. As the story progresses, so do the girls, as they discover love, sex, drugs and booze, while back in the real world family matters get ignored and priorities get mixed up.
All based on real events with The Runaways being the beginning for some of the members having long careers, well Joan Jett at least, this film is for non fans a sort of coming of age movie set against the music industry that is quite standard in it's story. It is then lucky that we have a stylish looking film which also has two fine performances at it's core. Kristen Stewart is far from her Twilight days as Joan Jett in this and actually shows she can perform well, but the real surprise here is Dakota Fanning as lead singer of The Runaways Cherie Currie; her performance is really superb and shows how much she's grown.
The film isn't a stand out for me otherwise, it roles along well, but it really does feel too standard in it's format. Those who are fans of The Runaways or Joan Jett will get more from this, however there is enough to enjoy to make this good sofa fodder.
More of my reviews at my site iheartfilms.weebly.com