Whip It (2009)

Best movie of this year hands down!

So much average

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Reviewed May 2010There is nothing on display that is either new or would impress you as what we expect from a director's debut - fresh ideas. It follows a template structured narrative style that is visible in most movies of this genre and tries to emphasize similar values as following the passion or about friendship, love lost and gain etc. Just a few working formulas are chosen, a new backdrop picked and hashed into a movie. Out of all these what goes right here is that they don't do a bad job at it. I have admired Ellen Page's performance in Juno and she is only getting better at it and this movie also features a host of good supporting performances too. The roller derby scenes could have been done a lot better and when I saw that Kiwi stunt woman I thought we are in here for a treat of sequences. There is absolutely nothing from her and overall a bit too disappointing. It's a movie where you don't get bored and the performances try to connect with you for a bit, but by the end memory of the movie fades away quickly.

Whip It (2009): Dir: Drew Barrymore / Cast: Ellen Page, Marcia Gay Harden, Drew Barrymore, Juliette Lewis, Kristen Wiig: High energy teen flick about goals and risks. Ellen Page plays Bliss Cavendar who works at a diner and subdued to her mother's demands to do pageants. She grows intrigued with female roller derby and faces the bumps to make it. Innovative directing by Drew Barrymore who also appears as Smashingly Simpson. Screenplay begins well but suffers from formula storytelling, repetition and clichés. Page is a sell going from forced glamour queen to a secret rollerblader who is afraid to face her mother. It is obvious that she will score big but thankfully her performance allow this film to avoid being a total miss. With that said, the rest of the cast are weighed down with stereotypes. Barrymore as Smashingly Simpson seems bent on getting into fights but this only positions her as a type not a personality. Juliette Lewis plays the typical rival pushing Page to the edge. Marcia Gay Harden does what she can as the strict mother who will suddenly see the light in the conclusion. Kristen Wiig plays a mother who is part of this group as a freedom. Not a bad start for Barrymore as director who hopefully will discover a more worthy project. The rollerblading element is interesting but unfortunately the screenplay fails to whip it into action. Score: 4 ½ / 10

All of her life "Bliss Cavendar" (Ellen Page) has been pressured by her strong-willed mother to be a beauty pageant winner. She pretty much accepts this primarily because she doesn't really have any other options. Then one day she sees a roller derby game and suddenly knows what she wants to do and subsequently tries out for a team—and makes it. From then on she secretly devotes herself solely to the game and to her new boyfriend "Oliver" (Landon Pigg). Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that what starts out with good doses of comedy and action suddenly morphs into a drama (around the midway point) and it's at this time that the film lost its focus and cutting edge. Additionally, although Kristen Wigg (as "Maggie Mayhem") seemed to breathe some life into this movie, her comedic talents weren't utilized nearly enough. Same thing with Ari Graynor ("Eva Destruction"). In summation, this movie had some good potential but the director (Drew Barrymore) failed to take advantage of it and as a result I rate it as only average.

I'm a fairly recent convert to roller derby having found it an excellent spectator sport: simple rules, fast pace, exciting showdowns and a good balance between grace and power. So I was really looking forward to this movie and it took me some effort to get my mitts on a copy.And it's not actually bad as such; Ellen Page is cuter than a thousand Ewoks, the score is good and Barrymore is always a treat. I don't even mind the utter predictability, that's just how some movies roll, no pun intended.But it never really gripped me. The comparison to a masterpiece like Bend It Like Beckham may be a bit unfair but it's inevitable as Whip It is an almost 1:1 rip-off. But where Jess is a plausible footballer, Bliss ("Bliss"? Really?) is just not believable. She never makes us understand why she's attracted to roller derby, except as an escape from her over-the-top horrible parents and she never really manages to make the transition from meek mommy's girl to bad-ass rollergirl, not even when she pulls the ultimate empowerment trick and takes off her glasses. Her nick, Babe Ruthless remains a joke.It also remains a mystery how she suddenly becomes the fastest thing on eight wheels. There's no Rocky theme, no real struggle, it just happens. One moment she Bambi on roller skates, the next she's flying like the wind. Same thing with her team. One moment they are losers, the next moment they are kicking ass. How did that come about? Oh yeah, they suddenly decide to listen to the weirdo posing as a coach.So, at least this movie has some smoking derby action? Well, not really. I've seen more exiting footage on my local team's website and without the fistfights and the gutter moves too. And I'm from Copenhagen, for heavens sake!