Whip It

Synopsis: The story of Bliss (Ellen Page), a rebellious Texas teen who throws in her small town beauty pageant crown for the rowdy world of roller derby.

Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut is an enjoyable riot of tattooed, fish-netted, aggressive girl-power played out on a solid foundation of friendship and good old American values. You know a ‘sports film’ is successful when it makes you want to take up a previously unheard-of activity and still manages to spin in a credible (even if predictable) amount of dramatic tension.

But what is roller derby? My screening had a bevy of fish-netted lady’s league members in the audience that I could ask, with sports singlets emblazoned with their whimsically pugnacious player names, such as “Mandytory Life”. Roller derby kicked off in the 1920s based on formation roller skating on an oval track. Points are scored when key players manage to overtake members of the other team. Modern roller derby has taken off since the 1990s. It’s often associated with campy athleticism, described as a post-punk, third-wave feminist contact sport. Whip It is based on the novel Derby Girl by Shauna Cross, a fictionalized account of skating with the Texas Rollergirls. Ms Cross, also a roller derby athlete, proves herself best as a screenplay writer in the scenes at the roller derby. The dialogue comes fast and punchy from coach Razor (Andrew Wilson) and roller girls such as Iron Maven (Juliette Lewis), Maggie Mayhem (Kristen Wiig) and Smashly Simpson (Drew Barrymore). The unrestrained exuberance, from roller girl Bloody Holly (Zoe Bell) in particular, reminded me of the few good bits in the second half of Death Proof. Here, you can get that good feeling again, but a whole lot more of it.

Of course, going skate to skate with a slew of feisty chicks is a far cry from the rarefied, yet twee, atmosphere of the local beauty pageant. At home, Bliss Cavendar (Ellen Page in another slightly Juno-esque character) is trying to fulfil her mother (Marcia Harden) Brooke’s own frustrated ambitions as a beauty queen. Her affable father, Earl (Daniel Stern), is addicted to football and seems to want a son who could bring home sporting trophies. Bliss’ only escape seems to be the local fast food outlet, where she works with close friend Pash (Alia Shawkat who gives a great performance). That is until, as per the film’s recurring theme of ‘being your own hero’, she secretly tries out for the local roller derby team

From here, the film winds through the slightly predictable path of the genre to a happy ending. But the performances jump out of the gritty cinematography and make you yearn for your own adrenaline boost. While there is unfortunately no performance of Devo’s ‘Whip It’, this film pulls off what it sets out to achieve fairly spectacularly.

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