See it! Rent it! or Skip it! A review of the film, "The Runaways."

When I first saw the trailer for the movie “The Runaways,” I had very high hopes for the film. I have been a Joan Jet and the Blackhearts fan for a long time and to see the story of Joan’s first band and their trek through the early years of the trying to make it in the music industry intrigued me.

The band only lasted in the industry for about 2 years in the early 70s and the film under the direction of Floria Sigismondi, who also penned the screenplay, does an excellent job in portraying the gritty spirit that was so much a part of the decade.

Kristen Stewart’s performance in the lead roll gives the film authenticity. She captures the essence of the original and many times I had to catch myself taking a double take. A big draw back to the overall quality of the film is the uneven acting performance by Dakota Fanning who plays Cherry Currie. There seemed to be too many scenes that lacked emotional connection that can at times throw the audience off track. Michael Shannon portrayal of Kim Fowley, the semi-senile and manipulative band manager, is spot on.

The rocking soundtrack of easily recognizable hits by the band makes you reminisce. Everyone knows where they were when they heard those songs for the first time.

Overall this film is typical of the sex, drugs, rock and roll saga. Only this time, the main characters that we see engaging in sex-capades, doing drugs and rocking out are female.

Want my advice? If you are a Joan Jet fan see it! For everyone else, rent it!

Micro Fiction

"Walk" by Artist Lisa Rae Winant

Image used by permission of the Artist

12 x 24 / oil on panel

Since the turn of the industrial age, authorities have sought to track down this most elusive and evasive criminal mastermind. His crimes have surpassed any notorious crime figure that has ever existed by circumventing human will itself.

His far reaching attacks affect us all. To every country, every state, every neighborhood and in his most provocative manor, every single home, whether joined with other or standing along against him.

Although simple in execution, these heinous, malicious and unspeakable acts undermine the most intelligent and sane among us. He seeks to throw you off balance. He makes you question almost everything you do. You search every self-reflecting aspect deep into every corner of your sole; only to find, no answer to your most desperate questions.

He turns an ordinary peaceful act of self caring into one that turns the most timid among us into a howling brutish beast, capable of carnage beyond believe until our outrage is so self-consuming as to bring us to a state where we accuse the ones most close to us and damage to critical relationship beyond repair to the end of our very lives.

We tremble and cower at his existence. Far back in our human history we’ve most often thought of him as a myth. Man at his most remote of conclusions always seems to deny his very existence.

His actions have scared me beyond a scope in which I may be unable to recognize myself ever, ever again. I have been a victim almost my entire life. As a child, his actions forced me to conform in ways that I’m not able to speak about to this day. Fortunately, as an adult, I’ve been able to cope by burying my misfortune, never to be reviled in public.

He has never been able to be photographed. This artist’s rendering was completed by interviewing countless eyewitnesses and included the most accurate case studies in criminal profiling.

Finally it can be revealed; this is the man who steals your socks from the dryer, leaving you with only one.