I'm not sure there's anyone else but Drew Barrymore who should have made "Whip It."
With its retro-cool roller derby setting, its girl-power vibe, its lovable misfit lead, it pretty much screams, "Get me Drew Barrymore!"
Instead, director Barrymore got Ellen Page ("Juno"), who I wouldn't necessarily say is the next Drew Barrymore, but I won't hate on those who think otherwise.
"Whip It" tells the story of 17-year-old Bliss Cavendar (Page) a small-town Bodeen, Texas, pageant girl. Actually she's a reluctant pageant contestant; that's really the wish of her mother, Brooke (Marcia Gay Harden), a postal worker who wants her daughters to have more than she does, and she's got it all planned out. Bliss' father, Earl (Daniel Stern), an amiable man who loves his wife and tries to just keep the peace.
One day Bliss discovers roller derby and gets her best friend (Alia Shawkat) to go to Austin to watch a match. She's found her destiny. She joins the Hurl Scouts, a devoted but lousy team of underachievers (Barrymore, rapper Eve, Kristen Wiig, among them), with a laid-back but frustrated coach (Andrew Wilson). Bliss takes the name Babe Rutheless. Her speed earns her an arch enemy in Iron Maven (Juliette Lewis).
And she meets a guy (Landon Pigg), an aspiring rocker.
What Barrymore does so deftly in this film (which is based on a teen book "Derby Girl" by the film's writer, Shauna Cross) is marry the conventional story line with a youth movement vibe. Nothing all that surprising happens, but the presentation is fresh and modern.
It's funny too. Small-town Southern life isn't mocked; its quirks are revealed but so are its beauties. The languid pace, the quiet, the quirkiness are as celebrated as the idea of yearning to leave it all behind, and go somewhere bigger.
The film, at its heart, is about a mother-daughter relationship, and that's handled with care and realism. Harden and Page are both subtle, graceful actors; even as their characters battle, you can sense that they love one another.
There's more story than roller derby in the film (including Jimmy Fallon as a skeevy announcer named "Hot Tub" Johnny Rocket), but Barrymore figures out a clever way to teach newcomers a little about the sport.
In the end, it's a sweet little film about a young woman coming of age.
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We brought along some Carolina Rollergirls to watch the movie with us and give their immediate reactions. Look for them tonight at Crossroads Cary and Southpoint, Saturday and Oct. 9 at Raleigh Grande and North Hills.
Lucy Lastkiss: "It's the only roller derby that could make me cry."
Trudy Struction: "It didn't make us look dumb; it was great."
Celia Fate: "It reminded me a lot of when I first went to Texas and discovered roller derby and how I felt going through all of that."
Daisy Rage: "They made it look way too easy."
Later Daisy added this: "I enjoyed the movie, but some of the clichés about 'derby' girls were perpetuated: We all have tattoos, we don't have real jobs, we all wear fishnets, we fight. That's one thing that bothers me about the preconceptions folks have about derby, that they don't look any further than what they think they already know. As far as the derby in the movie, it was simplified in all aspects: the trying out, the practice, the actual games -- simply because this isn't a 'derby' movie."
B+ Cast: Ellen Page, Marcia Gay Harden, Drew Barrymore, Juliette Lewis, Kristen Wiig
Director: Drew Barrymore
Length: 1 hour 47 minutes
Rating: PG-13 (sexual content including crude dialogue, language and drug material)
