Whip It

Ellen Page is a tiny tiny person. In this film, the directorial debut of Drew Barrymore, she plays the timid Bliss, who ironically is not at all happy doing pageants that her mother makes her partake in. We first see her in a pageant where she thinks it's a good idea to ruin her chances of winning the pageant by doing some crazy "punk rock" hairdo. My television might be messed up but it didn't look like there was much done to it other than it was down and something was in it. Something blue. After this, in the car, we see Bliss fulfill her awkward "nerdy" teen Ellen Page persona by doing what? Wearing glasses and putting on an obscure 80's band t-shirt. The band is Stryper, a christian metal band. For what I feel is no reason, this t-shirt plays an important role in a love interest for Bliss, which doesn't really pay off. It just sort of happens.

Bliss's best friend, coworker, and classmate is Pash (strange name (not a name)) played by Alia Shawkat. Pash is the opposite of Bliss, she is loud, drinks, hooks up with random dudes, parties, and dares Bliss to do thinks she doesn't think Bliss will do, like join the team. The two have a falling out, but in true indie film fashion (I must have missed the part where the title was spelled with large block bubbled letters) they reconcile their differences at their job (where they are forced to dress like "dorks").

I'll break this film up into some categories again like I did with Bloody Mary. And here I thought I'd never have to type those words again...


Part 1: Acting

Ellen Page is good as always, because she's playing the same type of character. The outcast type of insecure, unconfident, "dorky", teenager who dreams of doing something different. It's the Michael Cera problem, if you're really good in a certain type of role, you're going to be cast as that role until you start to change physically, which neither of them have yet. Drew Barrymore is funny in her role of the stoner, which isn't hard to play, but granted she did pull double duty with directing, which is more important. Kirsten Wiig funny as always. DANIEL F**KIN STERN is always good, and anything with him in it gets an automatic +1 for knowing how to cast the screwball dad who really cares for the family. The person who steals the show (or did for me) is Andrew Wilson who plays the coach of the Hurl Scouts (cute) Razor. He is funny, quiet and pretty monotone, but for some reason I liked him the best. It just felt like everyone was having fun making this.

Part 2: Scale for Budget or Production Value

Honestly this movie looks great, and with a budget of $10M you can really see it. There wasn't a lot of fancy camerawork, there were a few crane shots but they were small and not overdone. The best camerawork I felt was when the derby teams were playing (rolling? derby-ing?) and the camera was on the track with them. It must have been choreographed well. Costuming was good as well as casting. For a relatively small budget, this film has a large and well known cast. Jimmy Fallon is a track announcer and Marcia Gay Harden plays Bliss's mother.

Part 3: Direction

Like I stated, it seemed like everyone had fun making the film, and I feel that comes from a strong understanding of how to talk to the actors from Drew Barrymore. A hardened and long-term actress herself, she understands how to get what she needs and wants out of her actors, and this being her debut in directing, it really shows that she knows what she's doing. I expect great things from her in the future, as long as she stays away from Rom-Coms and takes some risks. Nothing against Rom-Coms, I would just like to see Ms. Barrymore do something different.

So there it is, I'd recommend seeing Whip It if you haven't yet. It was fun and chuckle worthy at parts. Let's give this one 7.5/10