The Runaways

Video director and fashion photographer Floria Sigismondi's biopic of rock & roll's first all-teenage-girl band is about as standard as they come. Playing more like an episode of a VH-1 series than a theatrical film, The Runaways is the uninspired story of the inspiring Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart), Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning), Sandy West (Stella Maeve), and Lita Ford (Scout Taylor-Compton), who were brought together in 1975 by maniacal record producer Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon). Auditioning in a trailer park, Currie slowly shows her mettle as Jett and Fowley guide her through the underground jailbait classic "Cherry Bomb," announcing the arrival of a band that would pave the way for such all-women groups as the Slits, the Go-Go's, the Bangles, and the Donnas. But one of the problems with the clichéd film is that "Cherry Bomb" is the Runaways' best song; everything that comes after pales in comparison. The choppy film is based on Currie's 2006 memoir, Neon Angel, so it focuses on her vapid story; very little is learned about the personal lives of the other characters, and judging by the amount of drugs and alcohol Currie (and Jett, who served as an executive producer) ingested as a teen, her questionable memory can't sharpen this tepid tale.