Whip It

Girl power gets the Drew Barrymore treatment in the sweetly enjoyable roller derby movie Whip It and her storytelling voice proves to be a touchingly honest one. Having spent most of her life in front of the camera, long-time actor Barrymore finally steps behind the camera (but still appears in front of it, as well) to direct her first feature. She's been producing movies under her Flower Pictures production company label for years now, but Whip It marks the first time she's actually taken complete control of the creative reins.

The Drew Barrymore treatment ensures that the story of a young woman named Bliss (Ellen Page) who finds her calling in the violent sport of roller derby is filled with a knowing sense of feminine growth and self-discovery. Bliss lives in a small town in Texas where her overbearing mother (Marcia Gay Harden) is busy forcing her to partake in beauty pageants. The idea is that Bliss' mother is living vicariously through her daughter, attempting to recall her glory days of pageant success.

But Bliss can't shake the nagging sense that she is meant for something else. And not just anything else, but something decidedly less prim and proper. When she spots a few young women entering a store on roller skates, she takes one of their flyers and quickly discovers the world of roller derby. Bliss and her best friend Pash (Alia Shawkat) sneak off to a roller derby game and Bliss instantly begins to idolize the tough, empowered women of the Hurl Girls roller derby team. It isn't long before Bliss is going behind her parents' backs to try out for the team and eventually join them under the delightful pseudonym Babe Ruthless.

For people like me who know absolutely nothing about roller derby, screenwriter Shauna Cross (adapting her own novel for the big screen) kindly provides all of the necessary information required to make sense of the sport. The basic idea is that two teams of roller skate-wearing women zip around a small, enclosed track and try to score points by whipping past certain players. That is a simplified explanation, but Cross and Barrymore do an excellent job of communicating the game's rules to the audience without completely stalling the narrative.

Barrymore has clearly been amassing her directorial skills over the years and she brings a lot of confidence and tender emotion to her debut. To help sell the girl power message at the movie's core, she has expertly exercised her creative power by gathering a very impressive cast for her movie. The amazing Page, so exciting to watch in Hard Candy and Juno, delivers another nuanced and deeply committed performance as a young woman searching for her place in the world.

On the surface, Bliss may seem like a similar character to the quirky heroine of Juno, but Page plays her latest character in a completely different way, replacing Juno's fast-talking, heavily sarcastic attitude with a gentle softness that convincingly matches Bliss' scripted journey. Shawkat (so funny on Arrested Development) makes Pash more than an obligatory best friend stereotype and I ended up really caring about her journey, as well. The always reliable Marcia Gay Harden brings a lot of dramatic weight and energy to her complex role of a mother afraid to let go of the daughter she loves dearly.

But Barrymore doesn't stop there with the incredible female cast. Joining Page on the roller derby track are inimitable Saturday Night Live star Kristen Wiig, stuntwoman Zoë Bell (who famously strapped herself to the hood of a Dodge Challenger for the stunning climactic chase in Quentin Tarantino's 2007 thriller Death Proof), and Barrymore herself. Even Juliette Lewis, who recently took a break from acting to focus on her music career, shows up as the villainous leader from a rival roller derby team.

The women are front and centre in Whip It, but it's not like Cross and Barrymore completely ignore the men. A handful of male characters are nicely handled and Daniel Stern is surprisingly great as Bliss' loving father, a beer-guzzling guy who probably would have liked to have a son in his life to take to football games and do guy stuff with, but who never resents his daughters for their femininity. Stern treats the subtleties of the character with care and helps create a very moving portrait of a masculine father who transcends the obvious stereotype.

Whip It is briefly bogged down in a heavy pile of predictable conflicts that all arise at about the same time near the movie's conclusion. That the movie requires conflict to move forward is without question, but I'm not sure that it was entirely appropriate to stack the pile of conflict quite so high. Practically every single plotline has the expected problem pop up at just the right time and it feels a tad too convenient for the otherwise impressive narrative.

But just as the movie threatens to abandon its unique identity, along comes Barrymore to save the day. Her direction keeps the movie focused and on track, which allows Whip It to quickly regain its footing. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the movie is the way in which Barrymore and Cross manage to steer the final act of the narrative in the right direction with such heartfelt energy that the heavy dose of conflict actually feels warranted. Certainly, there are a lot of things that suddenly go wrong and must quickly be made right, but the story is told with such honesty and emotion that Whip It emerges a very satisfying movie.

Drew Barrymore's directorial debut is filled with passion and flavour and I am already interested in what she will do next. With Whip It, she seems to be having as much fun behind the camera as she is in front of it. It is always wonderful to have another imaginative female voice calling the shots in modern cinema and so Barrymore's proven ability to direct is a very exciting development. I've had my first taste of the Drew Barrymore treatment and I can't wait for more. Smooth, cool, and confident, she seems to have a real knack for whipping a movie into shape.