The Runaways is a biopic-ish film about the rise and fame of all-girl rock group of the same name. The film’s script is based on Cherie Currie’s memoir, and is produced by Joan Jett. Unsurprisingly, the film mostly focuses on these two women, Currie on the mic and Jett on rhythm guitar. Lots of other ladies came and went – most wanted nothing to do with the movie, and their parts are fictionalized.
Curie (Dakota Fanning) and Jett (Kristen Stewart) were pioneers, 
and came together under the influence of scuzzy manager Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon). Like any respectable rock band of the era, they eventually combusted, but not before releasing four albums in as many years. They never made it huge in North America but had some crazy success in Japan for a while, where their sound and aesthetic were appreciated.
The movie is just okay. The leads are phenomenal, stylish and electric performances from both Stewart and Fanning (and Michael Shannon is stellar, as always). But the “biopic” aspect is less bio,
more pic. It barely scratches the surface. We don’t get to know anyone, and at any rate, Joan Jett’s post-Runaways life and music is where the real meat is. That said, it’s a clichéd ride about sex, drugs, and rock & roll, but it’s one worth watching to see Dakota Fanning get salty and Stewart own the role of rock’s first goddess. But it’s a condensed version featuring some character composites. The only member of the band besides the two front ladies that is touched upon is that of Sandy West, the drummer, but by the end they don’t give a shit about her, forgetting her in the title cards. She’d died before production began. Pesky cancer. The Runaways were revolutionary, a band about self-empowerment, but not all selves are created equally.
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 
I do like Michael Shannon, Kristen Stewart, and Dakota Fanning (notably for that gorgeous number to David Bowie’s “Lady Grinning Soul) but the film was very disappointing as it fell too much into the many tropes of the bio-pics and never did anything to establish the other characters like Lita Ford.
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I didn’t even think it served the main characters well, but yeah, the background ones were EXTREMELY background, regardless of their place in the band.
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I’ve seen this one. Yeah, agreed, it was meh.
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I don’t know what it was that annoyed me so much about this film but I stopped watching after 15 minutes.
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I easily could have, just because I was quite bored.
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I’ve had this in my Netflix queue for years and keep bumping stuff above it.
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Good intuition.
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This has been one of those movies I want to see badly, yet keep seeing reviews that are just not good for it, so I avoid it. It looks like I am not alone, from the comments.
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Yeah, you know, it fulfills some curiosity about Joan Jett,a nd it’s cool to see her be portrayed, but in all other aspects it’s pretty meh.
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well my OH wanted to see it as he likes any rock music bio-pics, hopefully it won’t turn up on TV here and we can just forget it ever happened.
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You know, “Light of Day” with Michael Fox and Joan Jett is still one of my favorite movies… Doesn’t sound like this is one I want to see, though.
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I’ve always found this underrated, pretty enjoyable film, has some good performances.
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I quite fancied seeing this and I’m was waiting for the review that says “get over your thing about biopics and get this watched”. Oh well.
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Well in its favour, it doesn’t really even pretend to be a biopic. It’s a very narrow look at a somewhat fictionalized version of about half the events and even less of the people.
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I liked this one a little better, but it isn’t great. And the way it completely ignores the other women in the band is just criminal.
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I enjoyed this one and thought the two leads were great. It could have had more to it than it did, I agree but it was still fun.
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