Whip It

Whip It

Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut provides a limp but inoffensive tale of triumph and love in back-alley America.

Stepping into the Indie film role once again, Ellen Page plays Bliss Cavendar, a small town girl whose banal life takes a turn for the better when she discovers the world of Roller Derby, a fast-paced and aggressive sport involving competing roller blading teams. Bliss finds that she is a rollerblading natural and soon becomes a first team star, though keeping it from her parents is harder than she realises and tensions arise. Meeting a young man along the way, Bliss is forced to juggle her relationship with him and that of her best friend, resulting in a breakdown of its own. It ultimately becomes apparent that Bliss' happiness is the most important thing, and her roller derbying provides her with a release she has never experienced before.

The only real criticism here is that the roller derby aspect provides little actual appeal or interest. Whilst providing the core story catalyst in the finale and through Bliss’s motivations for moving things on in her life, the sport is somewhat unorthodox and not as simple to appreciate or acknowledge as a story parallel as, say, football.

That aside, the film does little wrong but also fails to sparkle. Acting for the most part is solid – though Eve’s one liners are hard to take seriously – and the sentiments on display are standard to that of any slushy Indie film . There is nothing here of note and the film will undoubtedly be lost amongst the many similar better titles within the genre, as bigger and better films dominate the cinema landscape.

6/10