The Forgotten Dakota Fanning Drama You Can Find On Netflix
Dakota Fanning has had a prolific career as an actress and has stayed booked and busy ever since she was a child.
Her breakout role as Lucy Diamond Dawson in the 2001 drama "i am sam" with Sean Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer helped launch her to stardom. As a young actress, Fanning also notably starred in "Uptown Girls" with the late Brittany Murphy, the live-action adaptations of "The Cat in The Hat" and "Charlotte's Web," and "The Secret Life of Bees." Later, she voiced the titular character in "Coraline" and joined the "Twilight" film saga as a member of the Volturi Coven. Most recently, she portrayed Penelope Stern in "Ocean's 8," a Manson family member named "Squeaky" in "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," and Viena in the punk musical "Viena and the Fantomes." She also starred as Sara Howard on the acclaimed TNT period drama "The Alienist."
However, one gem hidden in her impressive filmography is "The Runaways," which marked filmmaker Floria Sigismondi's directorial debut. The 2010 biopic follows the formation of The Runaways and their success after "Cherry Bomb," with Fanning portraying the band's lead singer Cherie Currie alongside Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett. While the film received mostly positive reviews, it has largely been lost to time. Fortunately, it's streaming now on Netflix.
Dakota Fanning rocks out in The Runaways
A mostly-true tale of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll, "The Runaways" is a part biopic, part fictionalized coming-of-age story about its legendary titular band's early days. The film was based on Cherie Currie's novel "Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway" and executive produced by Joan Jett, so it naturally focuses on the tumultuous relationship between the bandmates as well as Currie's struggles with fame and addiction. It also features plenty of covers of rock songs performed by Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart.
As teenage girls navigating the sleazy music industry of the 1970s, trouble inevitably follows Currie, Jett, Sandy West (Stella Maeve), Lita Ford (Scout Taylor-Compton), and the Jackie Fox-inspired character, Robin (Alia Shawkat), throughout nearly all of "The Runaways." Michael Shannon, meanwhile, stars in the film as the band's infamous manager Kim Fowley, and Riley Keough stars as Marie Currie, Cherrie's sister and later bandmate.
While "The Runaways" is less of an exploration of the band and more of a dramatized retelling of its source material, Currie said she was "engulfed" by the film and praised Fanning's performance in it. In an interview with The AV Club, Currie also revealed that she didn't mind the creative changes that the film made to her life story. "How do you possibly take two and a half years and make it a film that's an hour and a half, and make it even closely touch what was truly going on? It's an epic," Currie said, calling the film a "flash of what The Runaways were for a specific amount of time."
"The Runaways" is currently streaming on Netflix.