The Small Joys of the Utterly Predictable: Whip It

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that Drew Barrymore hasn't spent too much time in the South.  There is slightly more to the South than cornfields, football, and bbq diners.  I'll make another assumption and say that, given the opportunity to direct her first film, Ms. Barrymore decided to play it safe and be as predictable as possible.  That isn't necessarily an indictment in and of itself.  An entertaining paint by numbers "teen girl finding her place in the world" story told in the context of an underground roller derby circuit and acted out by a stellar cast is fine by me.  I'd even go so far as to unequivocally state that this is the finest movie about roller derbies ever produced.*

As mentioned, the cast here is excellent. Ellen Page is very talented, though she seems to be cementing her role as the indie outsider chick at this point. It's also nice to see Arrested Development's Alia Shawkat acting again, as Page continues to make a career out of starring with former Arrested Development cast members. Marcia Gay Harden's turn as Page's mother probably is the film's strongest performance of all, though that Southern accent is straight out of Gone with the Wind.


Whip It's simple plot follows a standard archetype of the girl who doesn't fit in with her small town finds love and acceptance elsewhere, which in this case is the underground roller derby circuit of anti-establishment Austin, Texas.  None of the plot twists will remotely surprise you, and some of the particularly obvious twists are groan-worthy.  A good deal of the film also defies common-sense, as the audience is left to wonder how a high school girl could possible be spending night after night hours away in Austin without arousing her parent's suspicion (until of course her budding roller derby career can be threatened by the discovery).

However, try as I might I couldn't this into a sarcastic trashing of Ms. Barrymore's first film.  The soundtrack is a kick ass mix of hipster and rockabilly tunes, the roller derby scenes are lots of fun, and the whole thing just works as a weird jumble of reassuring cliches.  Whip It is a nice rainy day flick to wile away a few hours with that's sure to be popular with the pre-teen girls of upper middle class liberals, sort of like a Southern Bend it Like Beckham.

*Granted, this may be damning Whip It with faint praise as the only other films about roller derbies I can recall are the original and remake versions of Rollerball.  While James Caan and LL Cool J might not have much else in common, they can stand proud of their lead roles in these affronts to all that is good and decent.

-The Cat


Next Up: The first in what will be an ongoing series of reviews chronicling modern Spanish filmmaking.  Because I know Rosemary hates it, let's go with the magnificent post-apocalyptic drama, Children of Men.


Image courtesy of movieposterdb.com