"Whip It" as a box office draw was probably doomed from the start. You tell someone there's a new movie about women's roller derby and their eyes will probably glaze over and they'll probably change the subject immediately. The idea of roller derbies in cinema is either too kitsch or assumed to be exploitative or was simply ruined by peoples' experience with the terrible, terrible "Rollerball". But such pre-conceived notions are well-worth ignoring here or you risk missing out on a very good movie.
Ellen Page stars as Bliss Cavendar, a young girl struggling to meet her mother's expectations. For most of her life she's been pressured to compete in ridiculous beauty pageants (see "Little Miss Sunshine") but is starting to grow tired of them and her parent's rules. One day she sees a flier for a local Roller Derby league at an abandoned warehouse and decides to lie to her parents and check it out. Soon she's trying out and the next thing she knows she's on a team. Not long after that, she's met a boy. But how long can keep up the lie and avoid confronting her parents with her true wishes? Oh, and also a bunch of women punch and tackle each other.
"So, that all sounds pretty formulaic, what's the big idea, see?!", you might say at this point turning into a gangster from the 40's. The point is that none of that matters. It surely is formulaic, it's the same formula as "Rocky", as "Major League" and as "The Mighty Ducks". It's a formula that works and this movie (like the others) is smart, fun, funny, sincere, exciting and has a lot of heart. In fact, I can summarize best what this movie is in one sentence: this movie is John Hughes meets "Slapshot".
As far as formulaic goes it doesn't get much better than that. And that's exactly why it's worth seeing. It deals joyfully with a bunch of misfit goons who beat each other up for fun and, at the same time, it's a coming-of-age story that deals authentically with teenage friendships, parental pressure, the struggle for acceptance, and romance.
Drew Barrymore, in her directorial debut hits the ball out of the park as far as delivering a funny, touching teen movie straight out of the 80's. Jimmy Fallon is fair as the greasy play-by-play man 'Hot Tub' Johnny Rocket. It's great to see Daniel Stern again, he plays a great Dad character. There are also very funny performances by Kristen Wiig, Eve, Juliette Lewis and Andrew Wilson (who knew there was yet another funny Wilson brother?) as the coach.
Comedy, sports, drama this movie does all very well. Particularly, it is highly recommended as a fun date movie.
Rating : 7/10 (Quite Good).
Teen Angst Rating : 6 Å (Teen Angst is measured in Angstroms).
First of all Roller Derby is scary. Women who enjoy violence that much tend to.. well.. be violent.
ReplyDeleteSecond of all, All the Wilson brothers are amazing, but Owen is definitely top dog.
Finally if you're going to do the gangster impression, it's much more likely 20's or even 30's, but not 40's, psssh.