Bad Reputation

Six stars is because I will like anything that even remotely involves Joan Jett. Having said that, there is little substance to this documentary, and testimonials from the likes of Miley Cyrus and the Green Day punk pretender seem like filler to attempt to be relevant with younger fans, and already seem dated. The virtue signaling in the last half hour or so was boring. There is so much more to Joan Jett, and hopefully there will be a great Joan Jett documentary out there somewhere, but this ain't it...

Really, she is. I love the song "I Love Rock and Roll" as well as several of her other hits, but I didn't really know that much about Joan Jett. She was before my time, but her story is badass. She was a trailblazing female rocker who was brave, outspoken, and talented. She broke down barriers for women in the music industry and her rock contributions stand the test of time. Fun documentary covering her journey as an artist. Sometimes the movie didn't do a great job of anchoring the events to a timeline, but otherwise, it was well done.

It's a documentary about female rock pioneer Joan Jett. It follows her from her teen years in L.A. and forming The Runaways with Cherie Currie, Lita Ford, and producer Kim Fowley. After the band's collapse, she falls into despair until she connects with bubble-gum music writer/producer Kenny Laguna. She starts up Joan Jett & The Blackhearts and forced to start a label of their own.

In general, I know about The Runaways and The Blackhearts but I don't know about Laguna. It's a solid biopic of the highs and the lows of her career. It goes through the generalities of The Runaways. Her drug use could be expanded on. I would have liked to know where she was when she heard about the deaths of her friends Sid and Nancy. Does she have any words of wisdom about them? As for the rest, her relationship with Laguna is the most interesting. It doesn't skip over their lulls in the 90's. There are also famous fans doing their thing. The two main non-connected ones are Billie Joe Armstrong and Miley Cyrus. While I appreciated Armstrong, I can do without Cyrus. No matter how hard she tries, Cyrus can never be punk. If it's young female Hollywood, they could have used more Kristen Stewart. At least, she has more professional connection to Joan Jett. One gets a good sense of her in this doc and that's always the main goal.

I'm a huge Joan Jett fan. I love 80's rock and I think that some of her songs that weren't radio hits are underrated and as good as anything that was out on the radio in the 1980's. Joan was and is the ultimate cool feminist, doing her thing and not worrying about her "reputation" so to speak. Lots of great archival, concert, and interview footage in this. Fans of Joan Jett, fans of music, or fans of the 80's will love this.

I knew that Joan Jett was one of the early defining forces of women in rock and roll but I don't think I realized how driven she is, what a single-minded focus she's had for music and feminism since she was thirteen years old. Joan Jett is a real musician but she's also an astute business woman who is essentially married to her job, and she's had her hands in numerous projects throughout the years for other bands including The Germs and Bikini Kill.

She wasn't just a beautiful and sexy young performer with a hard edge that wasn't really seen prior to the Runaways and the Blackhearts, she's been a voice for queer people and she's mentored other women, gay men and trans people in a subtle, matter-of-fact way since she disappeared out of the top ten music charts. Joan has been behind the scenes, in small venues, on tour with rookie bands and generally being the guardian angel of younger performers, while continuing to make music and rock as hard as ever.