Word: jett
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Floria Sigismondi's The Runaways is set in the era when the verb to feather expanded beyond things done with oars and nests to include hair. It's about the formation in 1975 of Joan Jett's first band, the Runaways - a rigorous selection process apparently based largely on who might look good standing where - and follows the girl group's rise to reasonable fame and not particularly dramatic dissolution in 1979, which was more fractious fizzle than downward spiral...
...movie is vividly atmospheric and fun from a musical perspective (especially if you, like Jett, love rock 'n' roll), but it can't escape the conventional clutches of the biopic formula. "Girls don't play electric guitar," a patronizing instructor tells Jett (Kristen Stewart, nicely punked out) in an early scene; she responds by plugging in, screeching out some notes and swearing at him. It's a bit of a letdown, an easy shorthand to explain the motivations driving Jett and her bandmates. The Runaways themselves may have been fresh and exciting, but with this scene, the movie tells...
...Svengali Kim Fowley (a witty Michael Shannon) to sing and provide what he calls "jailbait sex appeal." The movie was based on Currie's memoir, Neon Angel, so we get a much fuller picture of her home life than that of anyone else in the band, even Jett. Currie has an alcoholic father (Brett Cullen), a foolish mother (Tatum O'Neal) and a sister, Marie (Riley Keough), who in real life is an identical twin. The rapport between Fanning and Keough (Elvis Presley's granddaughter) is so strong that the actresses' only vaguely similar looks hardly matter...
Elsewhere in Box-Office Bad News, the weepie Remember Me, featuring The Twilight Saga's gentleman vampire Robert Pattinson, executed a steep (59%) dive from last week's wan debut and crashed into 10th place. Pattinson's Twilight inamorata, Kristen Stewart, is playing Joan Jett in the musical biopic The Runaways, which opened in limited release to a so-so $803,000 on 244 screens. (It's really a supporting role to Dakota Fanning's Cherie Currie.) So far, Pattinson is finding it hard to attract fans when he's not in his giant fantasy-film franchise; in Star Wars...
...finished the Joan Jett movie, and you had to get your hair cut, which was kind of a big deal in certain quarters. How hard was it to convince the producers to get it done, and is that an example of the controls that are on you as a Twilight franchise player? Well, luckily I am no one's property, and free will is exercised greatly. I knew I could still play Bella and not have to feel the sweat running down my head to make me feel I was doing something real. I knew I could wear...