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I Am Avoiding a DEVO Reference in This Headline By Nathan Cone
I went in to Whip It afraid that the film would be one of two extremes: either too sentimental about its heroine and her longing to break free from her small town Texas roots, or too focused on the zany antics of the roller derby girls she finds a new home with. But though Whip It follows a time-tested formula, even down to the heroine’s mom reluctantly coming to terms with her daughter’s new passion (in this case, for roller derby), it’s neither sentimental nor sensational; it’s a fun movie, and probably good for moms and their teenage or pre-teen daughters to watch together. Wikipedia handily informs me roller derby has been around in some form since 1922, but the sport all but faded from the public eye in the 1970s. Sometime in the past ten years, though, a DIY movement to bring back the derby has sprung up around the country. The teams and leagues are primarily female (We even have one here in San Antonio, the Alamo City Roller Girls). The women involved in the sport take equal parts pride in the women’s empowerment and sportsmanship that’s a part of roller derby. They also get to come up with some pretty clever derby names. In Whip It, young Bliss Cavendar (Ellen Page) joins her fellow Hurl Scouts, Maggie Mayhem, Smashley Simpson, and Bloody Holly, to become Babe Ruthless.
Whip It follows the great tradition of other sports movies that have an on-screen announcer to handily explain the sport to those in the audience who have no idea what’s going on (see: Rocky’s ringside color commentators). Here, Jimmy Fallon plays a live announcer at the derby matches that narrates the on-screen action and cracks wise. He’s not terribly funny, but thankfully not as annoying as you might imagine, which I think was the point of his character in the first place. But never mind.
Marcia Gay Harden gets props for not making the mom into a shrew, and Daniel Stern plays Bliss’s dad as a sympathetic guy that clearly loves both his wife and his daughter. Whip It is the directorial debut of Drew Barrymore, and was written by Shauna Cross, a Texan in L.A. who skates as a member of the Los Angeles Derby Dolls. The project fits well with Barrymore’s girl-power sensibility, and Cross knows the sport. Whip It might not change the world, but it might inspire a few young viewers. WHIP IT ON DVD/BLU-RAYThe extra features on the Blu-ray of Whip It I watched were scant. A few deleted scenes and a three-minute interview with Shauna Cross are all that’s there. The movie looks and sounds great. You can hear every crash, kick, and jab on the derby track real good. Web ExtrasListen to a feature report on the Alamo City Roller Girls, produced by KSTX’s Abra Schnur. The Alamo City Rollergirls in Action Back to the main Cinema Tuesdays Reviews page More about the Cinema Tuesdays series  |
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But let’s back up a moment to the small, fictional town of Bodeen, Texas, where Bliss works at the local rib joint, serving giant “squealers” to dumb jocks that eat them in three minutes flat. Bliss’s insistent, yet not overbearing, mother wants her to compete in the Miss Bluebonnet pageant so she’ll have a leg up in life. But Bliss is more interested in combat boots than designer dresses. On a shopping trip to Austin, she sees a flyer for the local roller derby league, sneaks out with her friend Pash (Alia Shawkat) to go, and on the urging of one of the derby girls, tries out for and makes it onto the team. Bliss is such a tiny little thing that you’d think she wouldn’t be right for a tough contact sport like derby, but she’s a fast skater. Soon she’s the team’s new jammer, the one assigned to dart past other players, earning points for the team.
Bliss/Babe Ruthless follows her heart, which means she gets smitten and mixed up by a cute local rock star, and butts heads with her mom, who still wants her to go through with the beauty pageant. Will she go to the pageant, or the derby finals? And what happens when the league finds out she’s a minor? What do you think? That’s right.