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*** Official WHIP IT Review Thread

post #1 of 5
10/3/09 at 7:46am
Thread Starter 
Drew Barrymore makes her directorial debut with "Whip It", a film featuring Ellen Page playing Bliss, a girl in high school in Bodeen, burdened by her mother's idea of pageantry as means to a better future, while working at the Oink Joint with her school friends Pash and Birdman, going nowhere fast.  A happy accident draws in Bliss into the world of roller derby, and puts her literally on her path of follow her own bliss, even at odds with her home situation.

Overall, it was a lot of fun with the roller derby subplot, and even the home situations are earnest enough and not cringe-worthy to paint a more complete picture of Bliss and her choices.  Marcia Gay Harden and Daniel Stern play Bliss's parents.  Barrymore made her character to be some of the comic relief, while allowing Kristen Wiig some screentime to provide some groundedness in the film, and Juliet Lewis to bring her "Patrick Swayze" swagger to the party.

If you've never seen roller derby, don't worry, the film makes an effort to explain the scoring concepts, and you get some vivid characters from the different teams in the league (just don't expect too much backstory since it's mainly about Bliss).  The roller derby names for these players are pretty entertaining.

I give it 3 stars, or a grade of B.
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Gear mentioned in this thread:

Whip It [Blu-ray]
Whip It
post #2 of 5
10/3/09 at 11:48am

This is a funny movie with a lot of energy, and even if many of the elements are familiar, it's played and directed with such conviction that you don't care. And what an amazing cast. In addition to all the great people Patrick mentioned, the skaters include stuntwoman extraordinaire Zoe Bell as "Bloody Holly", Juliette Lewis as "Iron Maven" and Ari Graynor (who stole the show in Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist) as "Eva Destruction". The motormouthed match announcer is played by Jimmy Fallon, who I almost didn't recognize. Ellen Page's best friend Pash is played by Alia Shawkat (Maeby from Arrested Development), and in her own way she's just as funny as the derby queens.

Marcia Gay Harden keeps turning out one brilliant performance after another. It would have been so easy for her role to have turned into a monster mom, but she makes it so much more interesting. Watch the scene where her daughter makes a big revelation (and I don't mean that she wants to do roller derby). What Harden does (and doesn't do) is breath-taking.


Edited by Michael Reuben - 10/6/09 at 4:17pm
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post #3 of 5
10/3/09 at 12:28pm
This thread is now the Official Review Thread for "Whip It". Please post all HTF member reviews in this thread.

Any other comments, links to other reviews, or discussion items will be deleted from this thread without warning!

If you need to discuss those type of issues then I have designated an Official Discussion Thread.




Crawdaddy
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post #4 of 5
10/3/09 at 12:39pm

I caught this yesterday and I thought it was tons of fun. The script is a little familiar but the cast really won me over especially Ellen Page, Kristin Wiig and Marcia Gay Harden. It doesn't reinvent the wheel but I wish I had as much fun seeing summer blockbusters as I did with this.

They won me over when they played the Ramones' Sheena Is A Punk Rocker early on in the movie.

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post #5 of 5
10/6/09 at 3:07pm
I finally got to watch this film today and I loved it.  As stated by the reviews in this thread, this film contains many good performances by the lead actress and supporting actors.  The film had me smiling throughout its runtime and I still had a smile when I left the theater.  This film isn't just about roller derby, but about relationships, particularly between mother and daughter as well as father and daughter.  A really good debut directing effort by Barrymore and I love the fact she had her character as a supporting player which probably was a smart move on her part so she could concentrate on directing this fine film.




Crawdaddy
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Gear mentioned in this thread:

Whip It [Blu-ray]
Whip It
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