The Runaways, directed by Floria Sigismondi, is based on the story of the all-girl punk-rock group of the same name, formed in 1975 and headed by Joan Jett (played by Kristen Stewart) and Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning). The opening scene is a close-up of Cherie’s first drop of hot menstrual blood hitting the even hotter Los Angeles pavement, in a strange way marking both her territory and her entrance into womanhood. The film depicts the band’s rapid rise to rock n’ roll fame which, like that blood, takes them by surprise and introduces them to the gritty realities of being a girl in a man’s world.

Joan, a skinny, guitar-playing, Keith Richards-worshipping tomboy wants to “rock like the boys do.” She meets Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon), an eccentric record producer, and pitches her idea of starting an all-girl rock group. Always looking for the next big thing, he hooks Joan up with a few other female musicians, but the band is lacking something: sex appeal. Spotting Cherie at a club, Fowley takes her on as the lead singer and sex kitten of The Runaways, marketing the band as “jailbait rock.” Using a rundown trailer as their practice space, Fowley prepares the girls – none of whom are over 16 – for the cutthroat world of rock ‘n’ roll. He yells at them “think with your cock” and “it’s not about women’s lib, it’s about women’s libido,” while throwing dog turds and empty beer cans to ready them for pissed-off crowds. Before they know it, The Runaways are signed by Mercury Records and jet off for a tour, where the rock-star lifestyle of booze, sex, and drugs begins to prove too much for Cherie.

Hardcore Jett and Currie fans will likely be critical of the clean-cut young starlets playing rockers who were far grittier than themselves. Yet critical eyes waiting for breaks in character will be disappointed: Fanning and Stewart never waver. Nobody could have done a better job.

Fitting perfectly into her 1970s apparel, we are unable to take our eyes off the eerily grown-up Fanning, who plays Currie with a mature and hypnotic confidence. Perhaps her performance is so alluring because of the potential doubling – like Currie, Fanning is a young woman coming of age in a ruthless industry known to be both sexually and economically exploitative. Kristen Stewart completely redeems herself from the awkwardness of her Twilight phase – saying little but conveying a lot, she nails Jett. It is clear that Stewart is not on-screen to “look good” but rather to act truthfully, which she does. The girls’ physicality is perhaps the most impressive part of their performance; Stewart constantly stays in character with a hunched walk and boyish movements, while Fanning’s on stage dancing is verbatim from actual footage of Currie.

Sigismondi, better known as a music video director, demonstrates her sharp eye for combining music with the moving image. The concert scenes are great, sometimes blurred or sped up, conveying the “caught in the moment” feeling music gives both its performers and listeners. Her shots are grainy and, like the 1970s music scene, they’re not pretty nor trying to be. A particularly interesting scene to watch is when Joan’s head is sticking out from a bathtub full of murky water. After a few seconds she submerges and the shot cuts to her naked body writhing in an underwater space much larger then she’s actually in, evoking a grand metamorphosis or rebirth. Sigismondi takes refreshing risks like this one and pulls them off.

The Runaways is definitely worth taking a chance on. The acting is great, the shots are interesting, and who doesn’t like a good seventies mullet?

Starring Miley Cyrus, Greg Kinnear, and Liam Hemsworth, The Last Song is a too heavy on subplots and a too light on actual content.

The casting directors unearthed some hidden gems in supporting actors Bobby Coleman and Carly Chaikin. Coleman plays Cyrus’ younger brother and warmed my cold black heart in ways that only a small child can, especially when sharing the screen with his terminally ill father (Kinnear). Chaikin plays Cyrus’ seemingly badass but really misunderstood friend Blaze. Lame nicknames aside, she definitely gives a commendable performance as she struggles with both an abusive boyfriend and a rocky home life. As you can see, the sub-plots are pretty heavy for Cyrus’s 10-year-old fan base.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the film, however, is that it does not feature any Miley Cyrus songs. There is no moment in the film where Cyrus awkwardly makes the revelation that “life’s a climb” before breaking into a radio-friendly power ballad. Believing that Cyrus’s character happened to be a Juilliard-accepted pianist induced eye-rolling on my part, but because the score was neither composed nor sung by her, it turned out okay.

The film features Cyrus as rebellious teen Veronica “Ronnie” Miller, a New York City shoplifter shipped back to her father’s beach house in Georgia for what she soon realizes will be their final summer together. Still holding a grudge after her parents’ divorce, Ronnie initially refuses to pay attention to her father, instead preferring to spend time with Blaze and her band of alcoholic misfits. Her father and younger brother Jonah, however, begin to find common ground as they work together to rebuild a stained-glass window for the town’s recently (and mysteriously) torched church.

Once Ronnie meets Southern heir to an ambiguous-but-impressive-fortune, Will Blakelee (Hemsworth), her distaste for the small Georgia town and her contempt for her father quickly dissipate. And making this already played-out narrative even worse is that Hemsworth suffers from what I like to call Channing Tatum Syndrome – rock-hard abs and no acting talent whatsoever.

As their romance quickly trots along they find themselves faced with the clichéd combination of Nicholas Sparks’ roadblocks: disapproving parents (The Notebook), an incident of attempted arson/murder/other indictable offense (A Walk to Remember), and an ailing father (Dear John). And while The Last Song is by no means the worst of the bunch, the film fails to live up to Sparks’ shining beacon of sappiness, The Notebook. Cyrus does not have the acting chops to keep up with the ensemble cast and while Coleman and Chaikin do their best, they cannot carry the convoluted narrative on their own. The movie simply tries to do too much in an hour and a half – the fatal flaw that most Sparks films fall victim to. If the recent plethora of sub-par Sparks’ penned tear-jerkers have taught us nothing else, it’s that without the white-hot chemistry of McAdams and Gosling, his overdone love-tragedy combination will likely only blunder along to the closing credits.

With online video clips already a welcome distraction at the library, it’s hardly surprising that the Fokus Film Festival’s popularity has expanded exponentially in the past four years. The festival, hosted by TVMcGill, showcases the works of film-savvy, creative McGill students and awards prizes to the best films in each category. This year, the festival organizers received a record 35 submissions from students of almost every faculty.

Involved in the festival since its beginning, first as a spectator and later as a festival director, Natalie Cross was there through its growth from when it was a couple films in Arts W-250 to this year’s filling of Cinema du Parc. Cross has been amazed by the evolution of the festival, but feels it is the natural progression for an event that plays such an important role on campus.

“[The Fokus Film Festival] allows for students who do not usually have access to creative outlets to explore with their art and push the boundaries in an encouraging and supportive environment,” says Cross.

The competition is divided into five categories: 72-Hour, Experimental, Animation, Non-Fiction, and Fiction (Comedy and Drama). The most exciting event is perhaps the 72-Hour competition, where students have three days to create and submit a short feature film. Silent cinema was this year’s theme. Sound was only allowed as background music or inputted noise, and all dialogue had to be displayed 1920s style, written in a separate frame.

“We wanted to do a 1960s theme, but we felt it wasn’t restraining enough, and it could have been too easy. We really needed to find a restraining theme, but not so restraining that [the filmmakers] would have no artistic flexibility,” says Cross.

This year’s winner, A Streetlight Romantic, by Tim Beeler and Adam Nanji, explores the thoughts of a man haunted by his loved one as he roams the dark alleys of Montreal.

The festival itself, held at Cinema du Parc last Thursday, brought together students and friends from different backgrounds and interests, providing not only an evening of entertainment but also an opportunity to witness the hard work of fellow peers. The screenings were interrupted by fun intermissions featuring raffle prizes.

The festival was judged by a panel that included McGill professors Giles Walker and Antonio Del Fonso, Montreal freelance filmmaker Harley Dover, and Michael Ryan, director of the Young Cuts Film Festival.

According to Cross, a film does not necessarily need cinematic value to snatch first prize in the festival. The judges and audience, aware of student budgets and time restrictions, tend to respect humor over artistic pieces. Winners of each category received prizes such as Final Cut Pro, while the 72-Hour category winner received a wild-card entry into the Young Cuts Film Festival.

Perhaps the most difficult category to enter was Animation. With only two submissions, Medusa Feasts and Sebastian Goes to Work – both stop motion – the films in this category reflected hard work and long hours on the directors’ behalf. Alex Seltzer and Charly Feldman, and Arthur Cormon and Rosa Aiello, respectively, did an impressive job stepping up to the plate.

The crowd’s favourite category was the comedy section, which displayed creative works including comedy winner Difference Makers, the story of Bad News Bob, a professional unfavorable news consultant, and Viewers’ Choice and Best in the Fest winner dj capslock, by Katie Burrell and Jake Heller, which captured the hilarity of a foreign DJ in Montreal.

“The film was received very well. I was really happy to see people laughing,” Heller says. “I also acted in another comedy, titled Professionalism: A Work in Progress, written and directed by Arjun Kumar. It was a lot of fun, and it was actually while shooting that movie that I decided that I wanted to direct one of my own.”

With one submission filmed on an iPhone, the festival displayed how McGill students can produce great art with few resources. All the movies will be uploaded to the TVMcGill website to provide the perfect distraction when writing term papers or studying for finals.

Go to www.tvmcgill.com to see the winners of this year’s Fokus Film Festival.