# 32 – The Runaways

After watching this movie that is based on a book written by Cherie Currie, the lead singer of The Runaways, I was left disappointed. I have to admit, the era was well portrayed and the similarity to the band was there but the story felt weak. I don’t know if the fact that I’m not a fan of the band ruined my view of the movie or the fact that I dislike Kristen Stewart for her “I’m so much better than you” manner got in my way of me loving it or to think of it, I know it was a little bit of both.

Dakota Fanning on the other hand was in her own league – she has this way of making everything so believable (unlike Stewart who looks the same in every movie) and has come a long way as a young actress. I’m so happy that Hollywood hasn’t ruined her like it did with Lohan – Fanning will have an amazing career and The Runaways performance proves it.

The guy from OC was there too, he had some fun with Cherrie or should I say Dakota (?), but since it was a “I’m a rockn’roll woman” movie, he wasn’t shown properly in the scenes. It felt like the camera work made him unnecessary in purpose and that was kind of a cool trick – and this actually brings me to the main point. Visually this movie had its moments, I mean the elevator scene where Dakota looks like she’s about to die (and almost does) and the one where Kim (Michael Shannon) goes to look for the lead singer in the club – the camera work looks good. But the bad thing is the story and it’s sad, because the trailer had so much promise – maybe the movie was too long and the plot got stuck? I don’t know, but something felt wrong the entire time.

In my opinion, it is a solid 3 stars but not because of Stewart or the whole vibe of the movie, it is thanks to Dakota who showed that she can act and I mean really act! No offense to all of you that are big Kristen fans, but if you watch closely to the movies she’s in, you see that she always looks the same acting wise – maybe the biggest exception is Adventureland but I can still remember the emotionless lip action Stewart gave to bring some “deep” emotion to the screen. Plus, she always looks so mean in every red carpet event she attends – she’s like angry at herself for not playing well or at the world or something, I don’t know but enough about that.

The Runaways gets 3 thanks to Dakota Fannings performance, and its honesty about the band and the life they had but that’s mostly thanks to Cherrie Currie who wrote the book about it, so the prase goes mostly to her – good job, Cherry bomb!