Edgeplay: A Film About The Runaways (2004)

the audience applauded

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

good back-story, and good acting

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Nobody involved in or with the seminal 1970s hard rock group the Runaways has the same story or can agree on anything. This documentary, filmed by Victory Tischler-Blue, herself a Runaways bassist from 1977-1978, catches the insecurity of the band members now (interviewed separately) as they somewhat trepidatiously dig up the past. Why not bring everyone together in the same room and let them hash things out among themselves? Founding member Joan Jett is only seen in archival footage (much of it lifted from a television special chronicling the band's 1977 tour of Japan); Jett wanted no part of this endeavor and, indeed, would not consent to her music being used. One might think Jett, the most successful member of the band, would have at least two cents' worth of an opinion here, but apparently she was holding out for a dramatized Runaways movie (which came to pass in 2010). Members Cherie Currie (lead vocals), Lita Ford (lead guitar), Jackie Fox (bass), Sandy West (drums, now deceased) and manager Kim Fowley recall a few of the messier incidents in the band's history--and yet, in almost polite terms. Everyone is being very careful what they say. Perhaps the shadow of Jett was looming large on the project, causing the others to duck and cover. ** from ****

The Runaways broke down the doors for other all-female rock bands that followed. Joan Jett and Cherie Currie co-founded the group of rebels that were shaped, used and abused by music impresario Kim Fowley. The girls blazed a trail for women in general pursuing careers in rock and roll. They played loud and made no apologies for their lifestyle of sex, drugs and living wild. These teenagers literally grew up on the road and basically unchaperoned. This documentary is written and directed by Victory Tischler-Blue(who, as Vicki Blue, played bass at the time the group was imploding on itself. She describes the band's ups and downs with the aid of interviews with Currie and other group members Lita Ford, Sandy West and Jackie Fox. Fowley still comes across as a brash braggart. Jett refused to cooperate in the making of the film or its soundtrack. Personally I would love to see/hear Jett's description of life as a Runaway.

The greatest strength of this very good-but-flawed documentary is honesty. Four of the five members of the most famous version of the group (excluding Joan Jett) provide extensive on-camera interviews, as does replacement bassist Vicki Blue (also the director), and they are mostly no holds barred. Instigator/original manager Kim Fowley also appears for guarded but unvarnished commentary. The original Runaways are all interviewed separately, and each provides her reminiscences. It is quite clear from the interviews that all the the original members look back at both the other members and the overall experience with a mixture of ambivalence, bitterness, and regret. Taken as a whole, their reminiscences provide a Roshoman-like perspective from which a net truth can be pieced. This is as close to that truth as we have gotten, and much closer than we get in the more recent bigger budget Runaways movie.To anyone interested in the Runaways story, or interested in the sordid machinations behind the Svengali fueled star-making machinery of the music business, this will be engrossing and will be essential viewing.That said, this documentary falls a bit short of great, due in varying degrees to a paucity of archival material, Joan Jett's failure to participate, and a somewhat too narrow, too inside approach to the story.OK, let's take those three points one at a time: 1) Limitations on the archival source material. Joan Jett declined to participate. As a result, vintage Runaways songs co-written by Jett were not available either for the soundtrack, or for video. Therefore, for example, footage of the Runaways performing is limited to two cover songs. The soundtrack is populated mostly by Lita Ford (solo) and Suzi Quatro songs. Perhaps more significant is the absence of vintage footage of the Runaways at press conferences, in TV interviews, etc. The contrast between the middle aged women the Runaways have become and these women as teenagers would have added tremendously to the film.2) Joan Jett's lack of participation. As noted, this resulted in the lack of vintage performance materials. But it also means we are not treated to Jett's perspective on the days of the Runaways. Surprisingly, this is a relatively modest loss. The interviews with the other former members are (seemingly) honest enough that they paint a pretty complete picture. One doesn't actually sense that her lack of interview participation leaves as large a hole as might be expected.3) A too narrow, too inside approach. The film takes as almost a given that the viewer is invested in the Runaways as cultural icons, and that there is little need to investigate their place in the development of pop music. While that's OK for die hards, it unnecessarily limits the appeal of this film. Where is the essential commentary contemporaries of The Runaways--from artists with whom they toured or co-mingled, such as The Ramones, Cheap Trick, Blondie, etc? Where is the back story on the girls, which might explain how 14 year old girls were hanging out at nightclubs by themselves, available to be exploited? The meat of this movie would always be the interviews with the women themselves, of course, but framing is critical to make something more universal.Despite these limitations, if you have an interest in The Runaways, the film still packs a punch.Compared to the slick, bigger budget Runaways docudrama (which was produced with Joan Jett's participation, and which reflects a mostly Jett-centric view, and an almost entirely Jett Currie focus), this is most certainly the deeper film.That said, the sad thing is that this documentary contains the outline of a GREAT docudrama: Young, naive girls with doe-eyed dreams taken in by a predatory Svengali, used, abused and discarded, with the most fulfilling part of the story how they ultimately dealt with the collapse of those early promises. There's plenty of sex, drugs, and rock and roll to spice it all up, of course. But I think that's the far less interesting story. Too bad that's the story that, for the most part, the big budget Runaways film chose to feature. Contrasting how the different members of the group dealt with the collapse of the Runaways offers a fantastic mix of success, failure, reinvention, the triumph of tenacity, and tragedy of being unable to reconcile childhood dreams with adult realities, specifically: Jackie Fox, the smartest one (and the one who would always have the most options available to her), drops out of the group first, goes off the grid, finds herself, goes back to college, Harvard law, and becomes a successful attorney.Vicki Blue, replacement bassist, leaves and becomes a successful video auteur.Joan Jett and Lita Ford: Prospects outside the music world might have been minimal, but they were driven and lucky, and ultimately found legitimate success in music on their own terms.Cheri Currie: Directionless but benign girl has her innocence and childhood evaporate as she becomes the sexed up jail-bait singer for The Runaways. She buys into the image and lifestyle, but finally quits in disgust, eventually finding a certain peace in a modest (figuratively) just outside of Hollywood existence.Sandy West: Fox had the brains, Blue the artistic and personal perspective, Jett and Ford had the musical talent and drive and Currie was scrappy enough to find her way. West just wanted to play drums. When that went south, her life trajectory was one of deepening decent into darkness: drug dealing, jail, etc. Her interview for this film reveals that nearly a quarter of century later, she still wondered "what happened?" and was waiting for that Runaways reunion that would never come. (West died a couple of years after this film was completed).If you've seen The Runaways movie, and you're interested in further back story, this documentary is a must. The Runaways is adequate entertainment. But there's a lot more heart in this film.

Talking about 'Edgeplay', it's a two-edged sword! I'd like to start with what I disliked: 1) the camera work. Can't the guy hold still for a minute? Shaking the camera up and down and sideways maybe nice for 5 minutes of MTV interviews, but using that style for a 110 minutes documentary is nerve-wracking. 2) A documentary about a band without playing one song of their own material? Must be a first time. Instead, we get stuff from Suzi Quatro and Lita Ford's solo albums in the background. 3) Naturally, the absence of Joan Jett is a big problem. She wants to make her own Runaways picture in 2009, maybe after that we'll get a more complete view of the story.I'm glad I took the time to watch 'Edgeplay', nevertheless. Especially Cherie has many interesting things to say (and yes, she looks better now than back then). I liked that they interviewed the mothers of Cherie and Sandy as well - understandably, they must have been afraid of what was going on with their daughters far away from home, and nobody every talks about things like that because it's not 'cool' or some stupid reason like that. The picture 'Edgeplay' paints of Lita Ford doesn't omit the dark sides, apparently she is not famous for her patience and self-control. Watching Sandy (the last opportunity before her untimely demise) is touching. Alright, so 'Edgeplay' is interesting for fans to know more about the unique band, but it leaves many viewers unsatisfied, I guess.