The Runaways

Starring:  Kristin Stewart, Dakota Fanning, Michael Shannon
Drama, Rated R

Kristin Stewart stars as Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning stars as Cherie Currie in the story of the short lived hit teenage all girl band of the 70's called The Runaways.  The band came out of nowhere at a time when rock music was ruled by men.  Their rise to fame was unexpected and the film tells the story of the ups and downs that come along with that sudden popularity and living the rock star lifestyle.

• Loved it!!!  Kristin Steward and Dakota Fanning are a dynamic duo in this movie if I ever saw one.  They are both so captivating in their performances. 
• Fanning is so amazing I can't even put it into words.  Wasn't it just yesterday that she was a little girl on "I am Sam"?  Now she is all grown up and doing her first on screen kisses-one of them with a girl!  She has this amazing ability to really take on a character and make you believe it.  Fanning was gone and in her place I saw Cherie Currie-the rock star-and nothing else.
• Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon) was obnoxious and ridiculous beyond belief.  Shannon did an excellent job playing this neurotic over the top character.
• I find it pretty amazing that this band was so young.  Currie was only 15 when the band got put together.  It seems like a more common trend now that superstars are barely teenagers but that wasn't the case so much back in the 70's.
• Another story about the pitfalls of super stardom but it was gritty, interesting and so well done that nothing about it felt like just another story.

5 STARS

New Moon

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner
Drama/Fantasy, 2009 (Rated PG 13)

Bella Swan is your typical angst ridden high school teen who has a not so typical boyfriend. The love of her life just so happens to be otherworldly. Bella is crushed when Edward and his entire family leave never to be seen again and even more devastated by his statement that he no longer wants to be with her. To fill the void she begins spending time with her longtime friend Jacob. They not only get closer but he is also there to try to stop an enemy from the past intent on seeing her dead. Then, even he starts to act strangely and abruptly drops out of her life momentarily. Meanwhile Edward has put himself into a precarious position with the Royal family and could use some saving of his own. The two men in her life come from totally opposing worlds. If forced to choose who will Bella pick?

• I hated Twilight and so I didn't expect much from this movie but was pleasantly surprised. I saw Twilight just a month after reading the entire Twilight series back to back and being unable to put it down. When I saw Twilight live and in color it was immediately clear that a movie could not do the book justice and I was incredibly disappointed by what I saw.
• Perhaps I am so far removed from reading the books that my expectations have lowered-but at any rate I feel that New Moon was much better then Twilight. The love between Edward and Bella was palpable and I enjoyed the additional action involving Jacob in his new form. Which was very good by the way. Jacob's form that is. The chest on that kid is perfect and he looked even cuter after the hair cut.
• There is so much angst in this movie. Sometimes I just wished Bella would smile and act like a normal kid for once instead of being so isolated and sullen to the point where she doesn't even want presents for a her B day. Edward usually looks kind of miserable too-but I imagine being a vampire might dampen your mood every once in a while.
• They could all take a lesson from Edward's sister Alice. With her lilting voice and high energy personality she is certainly a breath of fresh air.

4 Stars

Adventureland

Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristin Stewart, Ryan Reynolds

Comedy, 2009

After finding out that his parents are unable to finance his trip to Europe a recent College grad is stuck at home for the summer working a minimum wage theme park job. There he meets Em. Her family is wealthy and she doesn't really need to work there but she does so to spite her father. They seem to hit it off right away and she seems to be the one bright spot in his ruined summer.

• This movie is set in the 80's and I love all of the old songs that were featured in the soundtrack.
• James is this awkward, funny, nerdy and very likable guy. He is the kind of guy that girls should want but often don't because their too busy chasing after the cool, rich guy.
• A great real movie about real people. I could identify with a lot of the characters.
• The clothes and the hair are very bad of course because it is 1987 but other then that the movie was great.

4 Stars