Review of Whip It (2009) by Michaela T — 25 Mar 2012

Bliss Cavendar (Ellen Page) is a misfit in the small town of Bodeen, Texas, with no sense of direction in her life. Her mother, Brooke (Marcia Gay Harden), a former beauty queen, pushes her to enter beauty pageants despite her lack of interest. Bliss and her best friend, Pash (Alia Shawkat), dream of escaping. Pash plans to attend an Ivy League school in a big city, but Bliss is uncertain as to what she wants for her future. During a shopping trip to Austin with her mother, Bliss encounters three roller derby team members. Intrigued, she and Pash attend a roller derby bout under the pretense of going to a football game, where they see the Holy Rollers led by Iron Maven (Juliette Lewis) defeat the Hurl Scouts, a perennially unsuccessful derby team. Bliss tells the Hurl Scouts that they are "her new heroes" and is suddenly drawn to the idea of being a roller derby skater herself when one of the Hurl Scouts, Maggie Mayhem (Kristen Wiig) replies, "Well, put some skates on. Be your own hero." Bliss tries out, proves to be whip fast, and makes the Hurl Scouts team joining Maggie, Bloody Holly (Zoe Bell), Rosa Sparks (Eve), Smashley Simpson (Drew Barrymore) and their coach Razor (Andrew Wilson). Bliss needs to toughen up on the track, keep her parents from finding out where she goes twice a week, and do something about her first crush...

Drew Barrymore has never been a very good actress, she seems however to be a bit better behind the camera. In this coming of age movie, we get the classic teenangst cliches, but yet with a framing that feels a bit fresher. Thus, with the backdrop of rollerderby, we get an ok growing up movie with a couple of solid actresses such as Kristen Wiig (a personal favourite), Juliette Lewis, Ellen Page and Marcia Gay Harden. I do feel a bit fascinated by rollerderby, a sport that has suddenly become quite popular again, and we get some quite nice action sequences on the track in "Whip It". As said, "Whip It" has hardly a structure we have not seen before, but it is neatly put together by Miss Barrymore.