Watching The Runaways, I was reminded of the Chuck Klosterman riff on how teenage girls are the new teenage boys. Here's a movie about a bunch of chicks from fucked-up families who fall under the tutelage of a crass, manipulative record producer, write some solid tunes and do a few tours before the rock 'n' roll lifestyle (heavy on the drugs and sex, of course) grinds them down and sends them limping into adulthood. We've seen variations on this story before — in movies as divergent as Sid and Nancy, The Doors and Walk The Line — but the fact that the debauched band members who are sleeping with each other and cramming pills down their throats are 16-year-old girls forces us to confront all kinds of gender stereotypes and inequalities that are often left unexamined.
This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2010.