By Sarah Sluis
Ever heard of the band The Runaways? If you're like me, born after their heyday in the 1970s, you might
not know about this all-girl band famous for "Cherry Bomb" and "Schoolgirls" (cleverly available, occasionally with katakana subtitles, on YouTube). Today, River Road productions announced the casting decision of Kristen Stewart (maybe you've heard of that vampire film, Twilight?) as Joan Jett, the lead singer of the band. Stewart looks remarkably similar to Jett, who went on to sing such classics as "I Love Rock and Roll" and "Bad Reputation." The idea of a rise/fall story centering on female band members strikes me as novel and compelling. The tough, devil-may-care attitude of the band contrasts fabulously
with the only other "girl power" band picture I've seen--the
hideous Spice World, a film for which I had to create the category "Worst Film I Have Ever Seen." (Trivia buffs will note 1981's Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains and 1988's Satisfaction depicted girl bands) For most of the intended audience, the character of Joan Jett will be a blank slate, but grounding the rise/fall story with an actual (and interesting) character is a smart move that adds authenticity and offers up a mythic
figure far better than, say, Britney Spears.
While I laud 2006's Dreamgirls for depicting a group of successful, powerful singers, most band films, like That Thing You Do and Almost Famous, relegate
women to groupiedom (in the case of the latter, Kate
Hudson's compelling performance and insistence on being called a band-aid helped empower her character). I'm excited to see an edgy, authentic rocker on the big screen, and hope this project will join the wave of 2008's "surprise" female-targeted hits, Sex and the City and Twilight.
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