For all the hoopla made of Kristen Stewart, Joan Jett, and The Runaways, it is much ado about nothing. Her role is severely limited in scope and screen time, allowing for two of her co-stars to shine through all of the misplaced hype.

Michael Shannon, a man who makes his presence known in the smallest of roles (see also: Revolutionary Road), has a bigger part here, playing the cut-through-the-bull manager, Kim Fowley, of the all-girl band. His quirkiness is amped up, each appearance another reason for donning androgynous makeup, yelling misogynistic slogans at a group of teenage girls, or just reading The Art of War while hanging upside down. Fowley was probably a manager only out to make a few bucks with whatever means necessary, but the film glosses over those moments and paints him as a man intent on making The Runaways a success. And the girls turned and exploited his harsh words of advice into magazine shoots and free hotel rooms every chance they got. The relationship between manager and group was that of mutual use: Fowley saw The Runaways as a machine to print money, and the girls saw the manager as a means to escape - freedom from small towns, dead-ends, and reality.

The object of much of Fowley’s derision is Cherie Currie, the youngest girl in a quintet of high-schoolers, and also the one who falls the hardest If not for her previous work this would be Dakota Fanning’s breakout performance. She makes one forget that Jett is the multi-platinum artist and founder of the band; Currie joined later when Fowley discovered the group needed more sex appeal and a certain Brigitte Bardot allure. Fanning takes over every scene she is in, fully capturing the innocence of youth and the simultaneous pitfalls of naïveté. While it can be said that any actor’s chops are heightened when viewed opposite the blank-stare-then-bite-her-lip approach of Stewart, Fanning is a standout that deserves more attention.

As for the story, it is exactly what one would expect. The members of the band are separate standouts who come together by magical forces, either coincidence, attraction, or a casting call. They gain some fame, do a lot of drugs, and fight until they break up. It’s been done before. What makes this familiar arc interesting is its veracity; these girls are real; their story is real. But, for all of the realness behind it, The Runaways is still a cut-and-paste script based on a band the majority of people (especially the audience it is targeted for) have never heard of. The best thing to come out of this movie is a future where Fanning is not remembered for I Am Sam or Hounddog, but for her ability to continue to grow and move beyond what people expect of her.