Sunday Afternoon Movie: Whip It [2009]

This week?s Sunday Afternoon Movie is also a long time member of the Unwatched DVD Pile of Shame, Based on the book ?Derby Girl? by Shauna Cross (who also wrote the screenplay), Drew Barrymore makes her directorial debut with roller derby coming of age drama Whip It.

Ellen Page stars as Bliss Cavendar a directionless 17 year old from Texas, her Mother (Marica Gay Harden) has been pushing Bliss into beauty pageants for years. On a chance shopping trip with her mother, Bliss encounters a few members of a roller derby team and she and her best friend Pash (Arrested Development?s Alia Shawkat) venture off to see their first bout of the sport and Bliss finds herself drawn to becoming a roller derby skater herself.

In order to join the Hurl Scouts team she lies about her age, and starts lying to her parents so she can sneak off to practice and games. Being an underdog sports movie, the outsiders learn that if they work together they can start winning. They quickly rise through the ranks and make it to the championship final. Although, Bliss?s secret could threaten her place in the group and all the girls have worked for.

In all honesty I have never seen a roller derby movie before, the original Rollerball was about as close as Hollywood has come to making a movie about this sport. Armed with a budget of $15 million, Drew Barrymore gives her all on both sides of the camera and it?s a crying shame this movie flopped at the box office on release.

There are perhaps too many subplots, her Dad is clearly a depressed man who feels he must lie to his wife in order to get some time alone to watch a football game. They all rally round and support Bliss with her new-found path, however this storyline isn?t resolved but in some ways a more open-ended conclusion is more believable. This is where Barrymore deserves extra credit, this so easily could have been a predictable underdog movie and in places it does conform to the genre conventions. However, an unexpected ending and strong performances elevate this movie to hidden gem status.

Ellen Page has made a career of playing quirky characters, at 25 years old she is already in danger of being typecast and that haunting performance in Hard Candy is already feeling like a distant memory. Drew Barrymore has been acting since she was 3 years old, so with almost 35 years of experience in the industry you can?t help but wonder what took her so long to get behind the camera.

When it comes to strong female characters, Drew Barrymore has played her share of misfits, underdogs and lovable girl next door types. Here, she gives herself a nice little supporting role but this is an ensemble movie and the seasoned actress has surrounded herself with a terrific cast including Daniel Stern, Kristen Wiig, Juliette Lewis and Zoe Bell.

There is a real shortage of female sports movies being made, I may have little love for actually watching any form of sports on TV, but I do have a soft spot for sporting movies or more specifically I like a good underdog tale. The derby sequences are impressively shot and it?s just as compelling as any other contact sport.

Drew Barrymore recently directed a music video for Best Coast featuring Chloe Moretz and Community?s Donald Glover, and she has announced her intentions to get behind the camera for another feature film.

Whip It is a feisty little movie that has a big heart, and I?d highly recommend you give it a watch. As the Olympics draws to an end today, Whip It makes for essential watching to cure you of post Olympic blues.

?Be your own hero? Maggie Mayhem

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Source: http://www.welovemoviesmorethanyou.com/2012/08/12/sunday-afternoon-movie-whip-it-2009/

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