At the beginning of 2006 there was a totally fun reality show on A&E called Rollergirls about a roller derby league in Austin populated entirely by pierced and tattooed women. It was a pretty good show, but only had one season. Now comes Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, Whip It, based on the same roller derby and it's punk players. In the end, the movie is totally formulaic and pretty dull - not terrible, but not great.
Ellen Page plays a high school girl outcast in a small town in Texas. Her mother wants her to participate in beauty pageants, but she is a light feminist and thinks they're, like, totally lame. She learns about the roller derby in Austin and goes to the tryouts. Of course, having not skated since she was 7, she's totally awesome at it and is offered the spot on one of the derby teams. She starts living a double life where she's a dorky student by day and by night she's a butt-kicking derby hell raiser. She lies to her parents about where she goes at night and lies to her team about her age. Ugh - then there's some Bad News Bears-y story about losers who start winning once they start believing in themselves.
There's nothing outright terrible about the film. It's just totally predictable and trite. There's a dull love affair, a best friend with hurt feelings, a scorned and then heroic dad and a tough situation with the derby championship on the same night as the beauty pageant her mother wants her to attend. Dullsville.
The directing by Barrymore is mostly pretty unremarkable, with a few clever moments and some really bad choices. The roller derby sequences are rather lifeless, unexciting and brief - and there should have been more of them. (Drew should have studied the the Rollergirls episodes shot by Bradley Beesley, who was able to get a ton of action in short bursts in the TV show.)
Ellen Page - who I normally find annoying - was pretty good here. She was vulnerable and sweet and totally believable as a precocious high school senior. Drew Barrymore had a terribly written role that she couldn't do much with. Juliette Lewis was totally laughable as the derby queen villain (I don't know why she is ever hired for any roles). Kristen Wiig was fine as the motherly derby friend - though I gotta say I'm getting sick of her being in what seems like ever comedy that comes out now. Enjoy your moment, KW!
I would not advise against seeing this movie, but it's really banal. The final roller derby scene is exciting to be sure - but that doesn't say much. If you really want awesome roller action get the Rollergirls DVDs - it's less cliche and many of the characters in it (real women in a reality show!) are the basis for many of the characters in the movie.
Stars: 2 of 4
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