Santikos Cine-opsis

“WHIP IT!”, Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut, comes out in theaters today.  It’s about a Texas beauty pageant contestant named Bliss (Ellen Page) who ditches the dress for the derby.  The Roller Derby.  The Austin Roller Derby.  In fact, much of the movie is a big, wet kiss to Austin life.  If you’ve ever been partying on 6th Street, you’ll get this movie.  If you think Austinites are pretentious, intoxicated, cooler-than-thou hippies….maybe not so much.

During a shopping trip to Austin (a very cute scene where Ellen Page’s mom, Marcia Gay Harden, compliments a head shop owner on his pretty “vases”), Bliss encounters a raucus group of roller babes, and gets an ad touting an upcoming match.  With her best friend Pash (Alia Shawkat) along for the ride, Bliss dives head-first into the hardcore world of women’s roller derby.  After a quick montage, Bliss has ditched her Barbie-scates for some real wheels and donned the derby name “Babe Ruthless”.  Not a bad derby name, for sure, but I think with a name like Bliss they could have come up with something better.  “Bliss-ter”, “Bliss-ed off”, “Bliss my ass”…you know, something like that.

Having had some run-ins with derby girls in the past (and I’m still scar-free!), I can tell you that the depictions of the characters found in a typical derby match are a little stereotypical, but also pretty accurate.  Roller Derby is a very rock’n'roll kinda thing, and Austin makes the perfect “cool” backdrop for Barrymore’s story.  As for the story itself, it’s “The Mighty Ducks” meets “Juno”…without the pregnancy.  And despite my pessimism, “WHIP IT!” had a nice balance to it.  The derby scenes, though predictable, were still enjoyable to watch, and the relationship/love interest stuff, while also predictable, avoided becoming too sappy.  This is a roller derby movie, after all.

In the acting department, Ellen Page again shows she can play the iconoclastic, free-spirited teen.  But there’s something different about Bliss…she’s lost some of the smart-alecky edge that Page’s character had in “Juno”, while still retaining her spunky nature.  Marcia Gay Hardin a perfect foil to Bliss’s nonconformist edge as a beauty-queen turned postal carrier and mother of two.  Daniel Stern is also really fun to watch as Bliss’s dad, a true Texas sports nut who never had a son.  Some of the best moments in the movie are his (the scene where Bliss and Dad sneak a beer while watching the game and talking about what makes a good block is one of my favorites) and he really takes the role seriously.  The derby gals are all fun, and Juliette Lewis is a great evil derby girl.

As I said, the movie is a big Austin love-fest, and it’s kinda fun to see Bliss’s frontman boyfriend take her to the Alamo Drafthouse on a date.  Barrymore paints the town red without too much fawning over how cool it is to be in Austin (right, Quentin Tarantino?).  Overall, “WHIP IT!” is a fun movie to watch, and a strong opening effort by Drew Barrymore.  Now if we can just keep her away from “Twilight” sequels, she’ll have a great career!