Whip It (2009)
By: Drew Barrymore (director), Shauna Cross (screenplay, novel)
Starring: Ellen Page, Drew Barrymore, Alia Shawkat, Marcia Gay Harden, Kristin Wiig, Juliette Lewis, Daniel Stern, Jimmy Fallon
In Bodeen, Texas, an indie-rock loving misfit finds a way of dealing with her small-town misery after she discovers a roller derby league in nearby Austin.
We all know the underdog trope. There are so many movies made on this formula that they practically deserve their own sub-genre. You know the type I mean: loser team gets a new coach/player/etc. and finds within themselves the spirit to become winners. It’s an adaptation of the classic rags-to-riches Cinderella story, and is used so much because it’s effective and easy to adapt.
Case in point: Whip It, Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut about a small town Texas girl finding her calling with the losingest roller derby team in Austin. You know going into this movie how things will end, so you’re never terribly committed to the plot, but the good movies using this trope are good not because of the plot, but because of how they choose to execute it. Whip It is fun, brimming with the sort of genuine girl power that is still depressingly scarce in modern cinema. It didn’t move me, but it did provide a sort of pride in my fellow woman, and I’m glad that Barrymore made the effort to get this one made. I could see it being the sort of movie that inspires young women, even if I’m not precisely ready to jump up and join a roller derby league myself.
The film’s biggest fault lies in the inclusion of Oliver, would-be indie boyfriend of Bliss (Our main character, played by Ellen Page); was this character present in the source material or did some dick-swinging Hollywood executive insist upon a love interest, because I’ve gotta say, it definitely feels like the second. It’s great that, after discovering a photo of Oliver with another girl wearing the t-shirt Bliss gave him in a symbolic gesture, Bliss kicks his ass to the curb without a moment’s hesitation. However, Bliss’ infatuation and attachment to Oliver seems misplaced in a film that has been purporting itself as a bastion of girl power since day one. In fact, Oliver as a character seems utterly superfluous, and all of his scenes made me either vaguely uncomfortable, bored, or both. I just wanted to get back to the ladies kicking ass and taking names.
Overall, this is a decent little movie, a good effort for Barrymore’s first go as a director. The acting is decent, although Ellen Page was playing the same character she always plays. I was especially pleased to find Zoe Bell amongst the cast, as I’ve been a fan of hers since her hood-riding turn in Death Proof.
