Review: The Runaways

It's hard to believe, but until the '70s there had never been an all-girl rock band.

This fascinating film tells the story of a band created by guitarist Joan Jett and drummer Sandy West. They found a singer, Cherie Currie, and also an exploitative, relentless producer, Kim Fowley, who virtually bullied them to fame.

The music scene is notoriously tough, and these girls were still in their teens, but they played with such attitude and aggression that they became a cult hit.

The film's writer-director, Floria Sigismondi, insists that the film is not the conventional biopic showing when and where they played. "For me it was more about how does it feel to be in the skin of a young girl during this experimental time.

"The '70s were very experimental," she said, "with David Bowie coming out and that whole androgyny thing, and what that added to the pop culture. These teenage girls were just at the very beginning of creating their identity, kind of like saying: 'Wow, I'm in this body. People are looking at me differently.' I wanted to show what that meant back then ...

"It was really important for me to be as authentic as possible. I really pushed the actors to play their own instruments," she said. For Kristen Stewart, who plays Jett, and Dakota Fanning, who plays Currie, that was a major challenge.

"I got them into music lessons because I wanted them to know the songs inside out," said Sigismondi "... and they really owned it.

"Before shooting started, they had two weeks of band performances, all day and every day. I put them in front of live audiences, to show them how a real performance worked. Dakota, as a singer, was competing with amps, drums, and there's nothing subtle about singing against that. That physical kind of experience made the difference to her performance."

• The Runaways opens on June 18.