The Runaways were an all-girl band whose comet flared briefly in the late 1970s, living precariously on that fault line between party-hearty hard rock and attitude-laden punk. The fact that they were teenage girls who dared to play harder than the cock-rock boys made them notable at the time, when piggy comments such as "Girls can't play electric guitar" were still commonplace. Without The Runaways, there would have been no Slits, no Courtney Love, no riot grrrl movement. They were trailblazers, bigger in Japan than at home (selling almost as well as ABBA and Led Zeppelin), but are now largely forgotten.

Along comes a film, "The Runaways," to give the band a little of the recognition they deserve. Directed by Italian-Canadian music-video auteur Floria Sigismondi — who's worked with The White Stripes, sigur ros and David Bowie — and financed by the group's former guitarist, Joan Jett, "The Runaways" tells a familiar rock 'n' roll parable: group of hungry young kids form a band, hustle for gigs, get their big break, and then lose it in drugs and drink before breaking up in acrimony.

Yes, it's your typical rock band rise and fall, but it's also more than that: "The Runaways" avoids the usual neat moral lessons and instead gives us a clear-eyed appreciation of what rock can be when you're a 15-year-old from Los Angeles with a messed-up home life, dealing with the ego trip of fame and nascent sexuality.