The Runaways – Alamo Drafthouse Cinema/Movie Screening

For those unfamilar, South by Southwest even has movie screenings during the music portion of the festival. Upcoming release The Runaways was screened a bit outside of town at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. The movie is a raw and uncompromised look at the perils of rock-and-roll excess all told thruough chronology of one of the earliest all-female hard rock groups. Dakota Fanning (War of the Worlds) and Kristen Stewart (Twilight) play Cherie Curie and Joan Jett respectively, in this tale of how youthful boredum and anger mutate through an industry svengali into a full-fledged tour-de-force band of raging horomones and power chords. Fanning is haunting in her depiction Curie, mutating from cute and fashionable into full drug-addled blurriness. Stewart also finds the longing heart in Jett that yearns for something more. In the great modern tradition of music dramas the two actresses also sing some of the band’s classic tunes themselves adding to the cohesion of the piece. This is a must-see, unflinching in it’s honesty and somewhat painful to consider given the real-life toll the music industry takes on aspiring artists.