‘The Runaways’ impressive but incomplete

Director: Floria Sigismondi

Cast: Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning, Alia Shawkat, Michael Shannon

Cert: 16

As near an honest bio as it’s possible to get of the infamous all-girl band who helped sex up the 1970s, based on the book ‘Neon Angel’ by Cherie Currie, the one member who did run away.

It’s a story packed with raw energy and female empowerment, and a lot of boiling sexuality, all well played by Stewart (Joan Jett), Fanning (Currie) and Shannon as the manipulative music producer Kim Fowley, who manufactured the sex and raunch appeal that followed the band.

The music’s terrific, but there could well be the core of a follow-up film: what really happened to Jett, Currie, Fowley and all the others involved?

Star Rating: 3/5