Whip It is a chronicle of one girl’s coming-of-age through a sport where heavily tattooed women smash each other in the face on roller skates.
What makes it so much fun to watch, surprisingly, isn’t that alone. It‘s also because it makes you feel like an awkward teen again.
Ellen Page plays Bliss, an adorably meek 17-year-old girl who is pushed into beauty pageants by her fifties mindset mother, played by Marcia Gay Harden. Bliss doesn’t quite take the pageants as seriously as her mother, who truly believes that some strong life lessons can be imparted onto Bliss if she would just get serious.
Meanwhile, her dad, played by Daniel Stern, chooses to stay out of the debate, appearing almost uncaring in some scenes.
Bliss exists in a shy teenage stage where she doesn’t have much going for her, but doesn’t know how to change things; until one day she is introduced to the world of roller derby. She digs through an old trunk to find her old Barbie skates and try out for one of the teams on show, the Hurl Scouts.
The story itself is the true star of the movie, as it’s a version of The Karate Kid with roller girls that have monikers like “Rosa Sparks,” “Smashley Simpson” and even “Jabba the Slut.”
Even though the humor helps, what makes the film work is its sense of reality. The film never plays up the drama or focuses too much on the derby itself. This is a movie about Bliss and her problems at home, and the film never forgets this.
The direction is a first time effort of Drew Barrymore, and despite a slow start, she absolutely nails the feeling of being young and finding yourself through something you love.
The choice of music and framing imparts a feeling of loneliness when we focus on Bliss’s character at first, which then expands into a more frenetic kind of energy when Bliss gets more into roller derby.
Enough good things can’t be said about the casting and individual performances. Page’s Bliss is the polar opposite of Juno, imparting a kind of quiet sensitivity that never feels forced. Harden feels like a mother who desperately wants not just what is right for her daughter, but to succeed where she never did. She fiercely opposes the world that Bliss is caught up in, and can’t even begin to comprehend her being truly happy with it.
This also may be the first time Jimmy Fallon plays a tolerable role. His name is Johnny Rocket, and provides semi-commentary on the games themselves. He tells horrible jokes. He tries desperately, and fails, to get with any of women on skates. Jimmy Fallon essentially plays Jimmy Fallon, and it works beautifully.
The only real problem with the film is that the rivalry between Pages character and rival player Iron Maven, played by Juliette Lewis, feels a little forced. Maven just decides, for no apparent reason, that she doesn’t like Bliss, and we never really get a good explanation why.
Despite this, Whip It manages to be the rare comedy that also has genuine warmth to it. It’s also a great start to Barrymore’s directing career. Devo would approve.
