No need to run to "The Runaways"

I might have busted an E string in excitement when I first heard that a movie about The Runaways, an all-girl ‘70s punk band featuring Joan Jett, was in the works. Although the band was long dissolved by the time I got my hands on a warbly cassette of their music in the mid-'80s, I spent an entire summer listening to almost nothing but their second album,"Queens of Noise."

Needless to say, when "The Runaways" finally made its way to Milwaukee last Friday -- it's on the main screen at The Oriental Theater -- I was extremely stoked.

The film is loosely based on lead singer Cheri Currie's memoir, "Neon Angel," and I assumed the screenplay would dish up all the gritty details of the band's rise and fall, allow viewers to find out more about these raunchy punk rock pioneers and deliver hot, artistic girl-on-girl action between Jett and Currie.

Unfortunately, none of the above happened.

A weak script and spotty acting nix any chance for character development. We have no idea what Jett -- played by the Kristen Stewart -- is thinking or feeling. Visually, she looks like Jett, but we are only privy to her stereotyped shell reinforced by scene after scene like the one with she jumps wildly on her bed in her underpants, guitar strapped to her skinny, teenaged body.

The character of Currie, played by an all-grown-up Dakota Fanning, is a little better. We see her transform from a troubled suburbanite in a dysfunctional family to a sex pot struggling with drug addiction, but still, we have little access to her thoughts and feelings.

Also, the film pays almost no attention to the rest of the band, which includes guitarist Lita Ford (Scout Taylor-Compton), bassist Jackie Fox (Alia Shawkat) and drummer Sandy West (Stella Maeve.) This dismissal of band members -- along with the presentation of very few Runaways' songs except "Cherry Bomb" -- is the crux of the film's downfall.

The indie flick attracts primarily diehard fans of The Runaways and ‘70s punk bands who paved the way, and yet it forks over a watered-down experience as if the primary viewers are more mainstream and less informed.

Also, the "promising band burns out due to drugs" theme is slippery. Too many films, from "Sid & Nancy" to "Almost Famous," exhausted this scenario long ago. So, at this point, viewers demand a fresh take on this sad-but-faded story line.

"The Runaways" never goes beyond the pill-popping party hardy band scenes -- we never see true bonding between the girls during drug experiences -- not even when Jett urinates on electric guitars with a band mate nearby.

Although The Runaways are hailed as one of the first all-girl punk bands that bled all over a boy-boy scene, the film reminds us -- unfortunately, too blatantly -- that they were simultaneously trailblazing and falling into the grippy hands of an oppressive, arguably misogynistic industry.

Sure, both Stewart and Fanning successfully dish up raw sexuality -- and a couple of stage scenes show us the something-something that made this band ignite the underground for four years -- but overall, "The Runaways" left one word ripping through my brain: "More!"