After growing up in front of the camera, Drew Barrymore makes her debut behind it with Whip It. Barrymore’s first directorial effort is equal parts glib indie hipster comedy and equal parts misfit sports movie. Think Juno meets Bad News Bears and Slap Shot.
In fact, Juno starlet Ellen Page is cast as the lead, one Bliss Cavendar whose Eggo is a little less preggo here. Bliss is a high school senior in the one horse town of Bodeen which is smack dab in the middle of nowhere, Texas. She works part-time as a waitress at the local diner with her best friend Pash (Arrested Development’s Alia Shawkat). Both are forced to serve their classmates who are mainly dumb jocks and stuck-up cheerleaders. Bliss’s mother Brooke (Marcia Gay Harden) is a postal worker who forces her daughter to compete in local teen beauty pageants. Bliss’s father Earl (Daniel Stern) is passive to the bone doing anything he can to avoid conflict.
Bliss is the proverbial square peg in a round hole until she discovers direction in her directionless life. She finds roller derby. She sneaks off to Austin, lies about her age, and successfully tries out for the league, despite the fact that her only pair of skates has Barbie on them. Bliss becomes a member of the Hurl Scouts, the league’s worst team and damn proud of it. Her teammates are a collection of colorfully named cuties like Maggie Mayhem (Kristen Wiig), Bloody Holly (Zoe Bell), Smashley Simpson (Barrymore), and Rosa Sparks (Eve). Bliss is transformed into Babe Ruthless and becomes the league’s poster girl drawing the ire of rival derby girl Iron Maven (Juliette Lewis). The Scouts even have their own versions of the Hanson Brothers in the form of the Manson Sisters, a pair of deaf & mute enforcers played by real-life derby girls Kristen “Krissy Krash” Adolfi and Rachel “Iron Maiven” Piplica.
The two best performances in the film belong to Kristen Wiig and Andrew Wilson as Hurl Scouts coach Razor. Wiig has stolen many scenes in miniscule bit roles before, Knocked Up and Ghost Town, for example. Here, Wiig is given a more substantial part and a chance to stretch her acting muscles as the team’s resident den mother. Andre Wilson is the elder, lesser known brother of Luke and Owen. Yes, he’s the Zeppo of the Wilson Clan, but I doubt either of his bros could have played the role any better.
The script by Shauna Cross (the real-life Maggie Mayhem) is predictable and uses just about every cliché known in the playbooks of inspirational sports movies and coming-of-age tales. What makes the film work is its overwhelming sense of joy. Whip It is just too much fun not to enjoy.
Rating: ** ½
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