Why you should watch 'The Runaways'

Here is the trailer for the recently-released film The Runaways, starring Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart.

The Runaways

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The Runaways is an important movie.

Now hear me out. No, it won't be remembered for any storytelling. No, it won't be in some film anthology 20 years from now as one of the greatest films about music of the new millennium.

That's because it's not either of those things. The movie, by itself, is just adequate. It's entertaining enough, and it will fill whatever classic rock and roll mood you may be in. But once you put it back in its case, you'll likely never talk about it again — as a piece of cinema history.

I look at this film differently because it is one of those rare movies that as soon as you start watching it, you realize two actors you didn't think would amount to much are suddenly extremely talented and are on the verge of extraordinary careers.

In 20 years, when The Runaways is discussed, it will be because Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart broke free of their pasts and became adult actresses right before our eyes.

I have been aware of Fanning since 2001, when the then-7-year-old starred in I am Sam. She was even considered, at least for a moment, as an Oscar contender.

The following year, Fanning guided “Taken,” a 20-hour television miniseries produced by Steven Spielberg. She played an alien hybrid child and drew praise akin to Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense.

Then something happened. She started making bad movies. There was Uptown Girls and The Cat in the Hat. She redeemed herself briefly with Man on Fire.

But her decline and seeming submission to her “child star fate” continued. She failed with War of the Worlds and Hounddog.

Most recently — just a year ago, in fact — Fanning starred in Push, one of the worst films of 2009. It seemed the only success she could find was just behind a microphone where her voice, which can sound anywhere from 5-20 years old, did the acting. She was brilliant voicing Coraline in Coraline.

I thought she was done as an actress though. That was until I saw The Runaways the other day. She plays Cherie Currie, the original lead singer of “The Runaways.” A marvelous performance, the 16-year-old actress showed no signs of her child innocence as she rocked on stage wearing a corset, panties, stockings and high-heels. She was not the girl from I am Sam anymore.

Her sex appeal isn't the point and, frankly, was a bit disturbing considering her still young age. The point is she sold it. In Push — a film where she acted in her first drunk scene — she seemed more self-conscious of her body and her image. She didn't know how to handle the adult activities in the film. Be that because of the directing, lack of experience or whatever, the final product was not good.

In The Runaways, she's pushing uppers, downers, smoking cigarettes, marijuana, snorting cocaine and, of course, drinking. And she does it without thinking twice. Now, I have no idea if she, Fanning, has any experience with any of it. But I believed her Cherie had. I believed it all the way through the hospital visit.

And there, the fact she made me and all of the audience believe the drug use, the fights and the music is why Fanning is no longer the innocent child star of the past. She's on her way to a successful and award-winning adult career.

That brings me to Stewart, who's acting chops were a bit rough prior to Twilight. She appeared here and there, usually as the kid of one of the headlining stars.

Her most-prominent role prior to Twilight was in Fierce People, where she played the granddaughter of an extremely wealthy family's patriarch. After that it was Zathura: A Space Adventure, which is basically a space version of Jumanji. Had enough of that description? Me too.

We really didn't know much about her. Her career took off with Twilight, but I don't think that her acting was the reason. It simply gave her the experience and popularity needed to land more diverse roles.

And it came with Adventureland. The problem was she played virtually the same character — a distant love-struck teen torn between two men. The film was good, by the way, but not because of her.

Stewart plays the immortal Joan Jett in The Runaways with such pure a badassedness so convincing that we want to learn the electric guitar, too. She also makes the drug use believable and her on-stage presence is undeniably Jett.

She's powerful in all her womanhood as she screams at record producers and fellow band members. She's the glue of that keeps the movie going. We buy into her, and for all the same reasons Fanning has broken free from her child star curse, so too has Stewart of her one-trick acting.

When these two grow into their 20s and 30s and take over the acting world, everyone will be talking about The Runaways. Go watch the movie. You'll see.