Python Hyena
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
gra-39317
Whip It follows Bliss, a teen who is looking to get away from her mother's idee fixe of the débutante lifestyle, who finds herself accepted into a roller derby team. The film is inspiring, amusing, and has a rebellious yet warm spirit. All of the characters were very well developed,especially as it shows the change in relationship between Bliss and her parents, as they both come around to each other's viewpoints. Kristen Wiig was phenomenal as Maggie Mayhem, a positive role model and friend to Bliss, and Ellen Page showed off her great as usual acting ability as she reacted to the actions of those around her. Whip It was incredible in every way, from plot to characters to directing to acting. While not the film would not necessarily fit right into the 'chick flick' genre, the focus on a mostly female cast does a wonderful job of portraying girl power, and emphasizes the fact that females don't need "that special man" in their life to succeed or be happy. This hidden gem of a movie is well worth a watch.
bazmitch23
Every time an actor or actress directs their first movie, they fail. Except for Ben Affleck.What's wrong with this film: It's just another clichéd sports movie: The main character wants to do a sport but her parents forbid her, so she secretly does the sports behind their backs. The team don't like her and bully her, but warm up to her later. Main character's parents discover she's doing the sport and get her out of the team just when the big championship is coming up. Main character does a motivational speech to make her parents put her back in the team, it works. Main character joins the team just in time to take part in the championship, we've seen this many times.Ellen Page is the same sarcastic character she always is and Zoe Bell can't act. However, it was nice to see Drew play a different character than the one she usually plays. In this film, she plays a wild woman who's is all brawn but no brain.And for the hundredth time, we seen the "friends fall out" cliché.
erikbramsen
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!
AD
