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EDGEPLAY: A FILM
ABOUT THE RUNAWAYS
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There's no doubting "The Runaways" were quite subversive and prolific in their music and influences and paved the way for many other rocking girl rock bands including "The Donnas" whom are incredibly similar in style and rhythm. These were five talented rockers who got together and made good music, and each of them (Joan Jett is conspicuously missing) tell their sides of the stories about their time in "The Runaways". For a band during that time, "The Runaways" rocked, and they still rock when you hear their music because it's obvious these girls, beautiful, but deadly in their riffs were meant for the influential status, and their music remains rocking and that's one of the many appeals of this documentary and the story of "The Runaways". What "Edgeplay" excels at, is that in the end this is not so much a documentary in which is biased and pits the blame on a certain member, but instead ends up becoming your usual unbiased unflinching rock-docu that former band member Victory Ticshler-Blue aces with emotion, and pure bittersweet semblance that basically points the fingers at everyone in the band, and the members point the fingers at one another and occasionally blame themselves. Each band member present their own version of the story that are so divergent yet so utterly similar in accounts of their journeys and attempts to make good music in spite of their manager Kim Fowley. Fowley was an influence whether they liked it or not and became the traumatic influence for them that still brings them to tears. Director and interviewer Victory knows the subjects of her documentary well, and really does capture their personalities and words, that were ultimately fumbled by their unbearable emotions which revealed strong emotional scars that still take a toll on them. We get to see not only some really interesting anecdotes in to the lives of the girls on the road like their love for quarter pounder's, and lead singer Cherie (whose still hot), who talks about her controversial corset which managed to take attention away from the other girls, and having condoms thrown to them during performances, but we get some fascinating insight in to their life as a band such as their wounds from their manager Kim Fowley whose constant berating, and incessant mental abuse of their musical efforts continues to leave them broken up. Essentially they were four young women seeking attention and acknowledgement but just couldn't ultimately get along. Director Blue captures the interviews so emotionally, and then once the interview is over we see the girls' reactions to their confessions and how the wounds still hurt, and that's what essentially strikes a chord. This is a rock documentary in its purest sense by really studying the dynamics of this group and never taking away the emotion. Not to mention a few of the members are still pretty damn hot. Either way we do get to hear some engrossing stories in to the women's lives and how they broke up and drifted away from one another due to wavering ambition, different views on their careers. In the end, in spite of Jett's refusal to participate her presence is very much felt within their stories and we get a good sense that from the very start they were going in different directions and this ends up becoming the essential opus for any fan of "The Runaways".
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| What did you think? Discuss this film at the Cinema Crazed Forum |
The relationship between the runaways was a shaky one from the very
beginning, and each of the band members make it crystal clear during
their interviews, they didn't like one another. What do you expect when
you team together five rebellious hard rocking young women with their
own ambitions? But as always the music came through and 
Blue can never really seem to show she knows how to direct, so there are
many shots where there is a shaky jerk, and much of the camerawork is
incredibly distracting to what the interviewees are trying to say,
especially when a background noise distorts much of what is happening,
thus ruining the moment of the anecdote. The film does also tend to be
very melodramatic very much in mixing in the video footage and trying to
create more drama out of what the women are discussing thus pushing it
over the line.
In spite of being occasionally melodramatic, and sloppily directed, "Edgeplay"
ends up becoming one of the most fascinating documentaries on one of the
coolest rock bands in punk. Packed with good music, great interviews and
heartfelt anecdotes "Edgeplay" is an engrossing peak in to
