Review: Whip It (2009)

[Steve Rhodes]

WHIP IT
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2009 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****):  ***

As daring as she is petite, Babe Ruthless of "The Hurl Scouts" zips through 
her burlier competition in the skating rink.  She may be the smallest person 
on her women's roller derby team, but she can really take a licking and keep 
on ticking.

Off the court, Babe is known as Bliss Cavendar, a high school senior in 
Bodeen, a tiny town in Texas.  When she is not working as a waitress at a 
local diner called the Oink Joint, a kitschy place with a big pink pig 
statue on top of it, Bliss sneaks off to her would-be new life in Austin as 
a roller derby dame.  Still, back in Bodeen, there is work to be done, 
including offering the diner's signature menu item -- the "squealer" -- to 
customers.  Eat a squealer, a monster size BBQ sandwich in less than three 
minutes and you get a free meal and your name on the squealer hall of fame 
board.

Drew Barrymore, in her feature film directorial debut, manages to get a 
sweet but remarkably bland performance from Academy Award nominee Ellen Page 
(JUNO).  In a role that cries out for quirkiness, Barrymore has Page playing 
it as straight as possible.  Since Page is the queen of quirk, this makes 
little sense.  Still, the result is a solid performance in an entertaining 
movie.  But, while WHIP IT is consistently cute, it is sadly never more than 
that.  I expected hilarious, but, instead, found myself watching a film 
worth many smiles but few laughs.

Don't get me wrong, I liked all of the characters in WHIP IT, but none very 
much, save Bliss, whose winsome smile is hard to resist.

WHIP IT features lots of roller derby action and has a sterling support 
cast, including Jimmy Fallon as Johnny "Hot Tub" Rocket, the roller derby's 
cheesy announcer, Juliette Lewis as Iron Maven, the tough-as-nails star 
player on the Hurl Scouts' rival team, and Alia Shawkat as Pash, Bliss's 
loyal and reliable friend and fellow waitress.

Marcia Gay Harden, in a key role as Bliss's mother Brooke, never quite 
figures out what she wants to do with her character.  Bliss is torn between 
her new love of being a roller derby girl and being a dutiful daughter who 
is expected to follow in her mother's footsteps by winning the Miss Blue 
Bonnet beauty contest.  Brooke is kind of strange but never strange enough 
to be a mystery worth solving.

This much is certain.  Watching all of the roller derby action is 
consistently a lot of fun. If you've never seen roller derby before, just 
image an unscripted and slightly more serious version of the WWE in which 
the wrestlers were actually competing.

WHIP IT runs 1:41.  It is rated PG-13 for "sexual content including crude 
dialogue, language and drug material" and would be acceptable for kids 
around 10 and up.

The film is playing now in nationwide in the United States.  In the Silicon 
Valley, it is showing at the AMC theaters, the Cinemark theaters and the 
Camera Cinemas.

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