River Road Entertainment
Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning, Michael Shannon, Stella Maeve, Riley Keough, Scout Taylor-Compton, Alia Shawkat, Johnny Lewis, Tatum O’Neal, Brett Cullen, Hannah Marks
This is a biopic of Cherie Curry, not Joan Jett. It looks like it ought to be Joan’s movie, but though Kristen Stewart does a good job of playing her, she’s not the focus of the movie. This means that Dakota Fanning (Cherie Curry) is the focus. In the special features, Dakota talks about how much fun it was to play a real person. She’s never done that before. Well, she has now, and believe it or not, she actually carried it off. If you don’t belive me, check out Cherie Curry on You Tube.
There are also some special features with interviews with Cherie herself. She wrote the autobiography and assisted Dakota through the making of the movie. She has lived an interesting life. The events of the film cover 2 years. Cherie started with Joan and the Runaways at 15, but 18 it was over. Cherie fell into a world of drugs and fell hard. Finally, after nealy dying, she pulled out of it and went through rehab and spent time helping others avoid the pitfalls she fell into. Believe it or not, she’s now know for chain saw wood carving! Quite a long way from practicing in an old trailer and singing Cherry Bomb!
The characters are gritty, and the rock and roll is good. The soundtrack is great if you’re a fan of the genre. I have never been a rock fan, soul music was my forte in the 70’s when this all happened, but it was an interesting story to hear how it all happened. And according to those who lived it, it’s very accurately portrayed. The music business is hard, and nobody wanted to see an all girl rock band in 1975, but Joan and Cherie and the rest certainly paved the way.
If you’re a fan of biopics or rock and roll, you’re bound to enjoy the history of this film. If you are bored with the subject, then there’s not much else to the movie, it’s just a story of how they met, and the two years that turned them into Rock and Roll superstars.
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