Whip It (2009)
Directed by Drew Barrymore
Written by Shauna Cross
Starring Elliot Page, Kristen Wiig, Marcia Gay Harden, Drew Barrymore, Juliette Lewis
Release Date October 9th, 2009
Published October 8th, 2009
As a kid I watched Roller Derby on Saturday nights. I never quite understood how the game was played but I loved the violence, the speed and the quirky humor. But the one thing that really stood out for me were the women. It was a mixed league where guys did a round then the ladies. I remember these women, some were giants and some were tiny and quick. It fostered in me a love of tough chicks. Whip It is a movie about the women I admired on Saturday nights. The bruisers and the speedsters. Beyond their toughness, director Drew Barrymore finds heart, humor and love while never losing that violent, attractive toughness that some call Grrl Power. Whateve they call it, I love it.
Elliot Page is the star of Whip It as Bliss Cavender. Trapped in a tiny Texas town where her overbearing mother (Marcia Gay Harden) forces her to compete in teen pageants, Bliss longs for something more. What that something more is, Bliss doesn't know yet. It finally becomes clear to her when, on a shopping trip to Austin, she spies girls on roller skates handing out flyers for Roller Derby.
Enlisting the help of her best friend Pash (Elia Shawkat), Bliss attends the match and it's love at first sight. When she hears about tryouts for her new favorite team, the Hurl Scouts, she pulls out her Barbie roller skates and hops aboard a senior shuttle to Austin and begins a secret life under her new name "Babe Ruthless".
All the roller girls have nicknames. There is Smashley Simpson (Barrymore), Maggie Mayhem (Kristen Wiig), Bloody Holly (Zoe Bell) and Rosa Sparks (Eve) on the Hurl Scouts. On the other teams there is Eva Destruction (Ari Graynor) and the leagues top roller Iron Maven (Juliette Lewis). The names are part of the fun and bonding that give the film it's quirky heart.
Naturally, there is also romance in Bliss's new life as she meets and falls for a boy, a rocker played by newcomer Landon Pigg. While the romance blossoms and Bliss becomes a star there is inevitably trouble on the horizon. A requirement of this plot is her parents finding out and Bliss being separated from all that she loves. How Director Barrymore plays these scenes I will let you see for your self. I will say that while she cannot escape convention, Barrymore shows more skill with the expected scenes than a lot of mainstream directors who grow lazy in the face of convention.
The cast of Whip It is pitch perfect. Lead by the star turn of Elliot Page, leaving Juno behind growing into a movie. Alia Shawkat is a terrific comic foil with whom Page has great chemistry. The scene stealer however, is Kristen Wiig as Maggie, the heart of her team and just the right person to guide Bliss. Ms. Barrymore gives herself a remarkable role as well, one that requires her to put aside any and all star ego and just give in to pure excess. It's a very funny performance. Juliette Lewis makes a good villain, vulnerable but with the strength to kick the ass of anyone who takes notice of that vulnerability.
Marcia Gay Harden has not been this good since her Oscar winning role in Pollack. Her role is conventionally villainous but she short circuits that with humor and a painful longing that makes her sympathetic even as she is standing in the way of all of the fun. Paired with Daniel Stern as Bliss's sports addicted father, Harden is the perfect combination or harridan and heart.
Whip It is too predictable to go from a good movie to a great one but for what it is, it's a terrifically realized comedy with heart and humor and best of all characters we quickly come to love and care about. My memories of Saturday Night Roller Derby on cable are fuzzy now but I hope that behind the scenes things are something resembling this movie. I still love tough chicks.
