Something went wrong
Try again later.
Bad Reputation
Joan Jett is so much more than 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll.' It's true, she became mega-famous from the number-one hit, and that fame intensified with the music video's endless play on MTV. But that staple of popularity can't properly define a musician. Jett put her hard work in long before the fame, ripping it up onstage as the backbone of the hard-rock legends The Runaways, influencing many musicians-both her cohort of punk rockers and generations of younger bands-with her no-bullshit style. Bad Reputation gives you a wild ride as Jett and her close friends tell you how it really was in the burgeoning '70s punk scene, and their interviews are laced with amazing archival footage. The theme is clear: even though people tried to define Jett and keep her stuck to one hit, she never compromised. She will kick your ass, and you'll love her all the more for it.
16 May 1965, Compton, California, USA
12 May 1936, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
12 November 1968, Portland, Oregon, USA
1 March 1944, Hammersmith, London, England, UK
30 November 1959, Los Angeles, California, USA
26 September 1958, Los Angeles County, California, USA
21 July 1939, Los Angeles, California, USA
5 January 1950, Brooklyn, New York, USA
22 September 1958, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
18 June 1942, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UK
December 31, 2018
I'm fine reveling in the almost supernatural Joan Jett I just wish that we could have been given a peek behind the curtain.October 29, 2018
Bad Reputation embodies the energy and zest which Jett injects into her music.September 28, 2018
Joan Jett deserves a great rock doc. This isn't it.October 29, 2018
Jett says she wants to offer her fans "a primal release". A pity, then, that this film about her is so repressed.September 27, 2018
From Jett's groundbreaking recordings with the Runaways to how she defied a narrow-minded media establishment, "Bad Reputation" is a case study in how a musician stays relevant.October 03, 2018
Jett is so free, she doesn't feel the need to speak to her private life. In her own way, that's as rock 'n' roll as it gets.September 27, 2018
The film is a disappointment, and has limited value for viewers hoping to experience (or relive) the years in which Jett proved a woman could rock as hard as the boys.September 27, 2018
Bad Reputation roars through Jett's 60 years like one of her songs, snarling and unsubtle.October 30, 2018
Shedding light on a story of 70s rock and roll that is really a study of a turning tide in the fight for gender equality tunnelled through music.October 26, 2018
The life and career of the groundbreaking rocker Joan Jett gets the dreary documentary treatment as the director Kevin Kerslake marches obediently through her career...with nothing less than wide-eyed adoration.October 25, 2018
The big treat is seeing Jett herself talk and watching her still-strong bond with producer and best friend Kenny Laguna: two leather-clad old mates, constantly bickering but inseparable.October 29, 2018
There's also little exploration of Jett's sexuality nor the more salacious parts of her drug addictions that she ultimately came out the other side of intact (if there were any scars, emotionally or physically, we don't learn about them).