Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) wants to be a rock star and wants to bring the world the first real all girl rock band.  With the help of famed rock producer Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon) they put together an all-girl rock band with the jail-bait lead singer Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning) to sweeten the deal.  They are called The Runaways and the rest is history.

Here’s one of those many true stories that I had no information about walking in.  I’ve definitely heard a lot of Joan Jett’s songs before; I just never knew it was Joan Jett or who she really was.  However, before I get into all the reasons why this movie isn’t that great a biopic I just want to put it out there that I was happy to watch it and I’m glad that I spent the two-hours that this movie was with it.

First, it seems logical to get to the most curious part of the movie walking in: the acting.  Kristen Stewart, the girl who’s been made famous for her role in the film phenomenon that is Twilight, continues her character of being an angsty teen.  I walked into the movie wanting it to try and give me something different from Stewart.  She’s been playing this character in every film I’ve ever seen her in and at this point have to ask if she’s been horribly typecast or just turns every role she gets into an angsty teen just because that’s all she can do.  I’m ready to now just ignore Kristen Stewart completely as an actress and just hope that any film I want to see that she ends up being in ends up having her as a minor character, like Into the Wild, even though I doubt that she’ll be doing many minor roles in the near future.  On the other hand, Dakota Fanning is fantastic in her role as Cherie Currie.  She definitely has the talent to rise as the cream of the crop of child actors from the last decade.

The story itself is still enthralling enough to drag anyone who just doesn’t know into the movie.  However, I think the thing that makes this movie a definite worthwhile rent is the music.  The music in this movie is fantastic, as you would imagine it had to be since these girls are the groundbreaking female band.  Songs like Cherry Bomb and California Paradise just stick with you after the DVD stops spinning.

In the end it’s a decent film that you won’t end up leaping over tall buildings to tell your friends about but you definitely won’t be worrying about what lies you have to tell the world when you try to account for the last two hours of your life.  It’s definitely the movie to rent this week if you ignore all others and the movie that I ended up missing at the theatre that I’m happy I got a chance to catch up with.

IMDB says 6.9/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 65%

I say 6.5/10