Whip It (Fox Searchlight)
Rated PG-13 for sexual content including crude dialogue, language and drug material.
Starring Ellen Page, Drew Barrymore, Marcia Gay Harden, Kristen Wiig, Juliette Lewis, Andrew Wilson, Jimmy Fallon, Daniel Stern, Alia Shawkat, Zoe Bell, Eve, Landon Pigg, Ari Graynor, Eulala Scheel.
Written by Shauna Cross.
Directed by Drew Barrymore.
GRADE: C+
REVIEWDrew Barrymore has done a lot for women in cinema. She's overcome her childhood star baggage and emerged a tough, savvy, Hollywood player. She's also taken control over most of her own projects as a producer and had some success, albeit with very little critical acclaim. In
Whip It, the story of a teen age girl's self-discovery through women's roller derby, Barrymore takes over directing duties for the first time as well.
Ellen Page stars as Bliss Cavendar, a girl living a Texas-sized nightmare in a small town outside of Austin. Bliss's mother (Marcia Gay Harden) is a former beauty queen-turned mail carrier married to a working stiff (Daniel Stern) who live in Bodine, Texas with their two daughters. Bliss's mom pushes her 17-year-old into the beauty pageant culture even though Bliss wants nothing to do with it.
One day on a shopping trip to Austin, Bliss encounters some lovely ladies on roller skates promoting a roller derby and upcoming team tryouts for the Hurl Scouts, the worst derby team in Austin.
Bliss tries out, and despite being a little timid when it comes to full contact sports, she makes the team because of her talent for speed on skates. In fine Roller derby tradition, Bliss also takes on the tough roller derby name Babe Ruthless, alongside her teammates Smashley Simpson (Drew Barrymore), Maggie Mayhem (Kristen Wiig), Bloody Holly (Zoe Bell) and Rosa Sparks (Eve). The Hurl Scouts nemesis and star of the league-leading Holy Rollers (dressed as Catholic school girls on skates) is Iron Maven (Juliette Lewis).
With the help of Babe Ruthless, the Hurl Scouts move up from the cellar in the standings, and the team is set up for a final confrontation with the Holy Rollers, which happens to be scheduled for the same night as Bliss's next beauty pageant.
Will Bliss please her mother or skate on to roller derby glory as Babe Ruthless?
While
Whip It's ending might be as predictable as any
Rocky movie, the rest of the film has more than a few problems.
First is the lack of continuity in the story, the script and editing. Shauna Cross's story of Bliss's journey from beauty queen contestant into roller derby greatness is disjointed and lacks a lot of background information. There are many scenes that seem out of place and I found myself wishing I had Cliff's notes on the fictitional Austin roller derby league.
Second is the obviously loose style of direction, where several scenes seem improvised because perhaps Barrymore or others thought they seemed like fun at the time. One example is a food fight between the Hurl Scouts and the Holy Rollers; another is a strange underwater love scene between Bliss and her new rock band boyfriend Oliver (Landon Pigg).
The talented cast does a lot to keep
Whip It from stinking too much, including Page, who did her best not to deliver a carbon copy "
Juno" performance. Kristen Wiig keeps up her habit of stealing scenes with her acerbic delivery and flair for irony. Others, including Stern, Harden, Barrymore and Alia Shawkat as Bliss's best buddy Pash also give adequate performances. The forgotten Wilson brother (Owen and Luke sibling) Andrew Wilson also shows he can be funny, even though his voice sounds exactly like Owen's.
It seems as though perhaps Barrymore's directorial debut was a little too indulgent, like a teenager going on a 100-mph joy ride in her uncle's sports car. Barrymore got a little carried away with her creative license and took
Whip It on a roller derby party binge when it could have been a little funnier and perhaps a little more socially relevant.
There are a few moments in Whip It that border on being touching, but they seem to come at the wrong times, either before the story arcs into closure or too long after.
With about three more scripts re-writes and 3 or 4 more edits,
Whip It could have been good. Instead, it just looks like the little film that tried, but failed.
