The Case for Whiplash

Drew Barrymore, director. From pre-pubescent acting sensation to wild child to wholesome actor to savvy producer, the next step was inevitably going to be, I suppose, the director’s chair. And she kicked off this new stage in her career with Whip It, a film where a young Ellen Page, plays Bliss, an unpregnant Juno character, who finds herself in the wild womanly sport of roller derby.

Barrymore has lined up a lot of fearsome and fantastic female talent to assist her: beside Page, Juliette Lewis is back and badder than ever (whence did she go? And for what purpose? Whatever the reason, it’s just good to have her slurry speech and wonky smile back on screen after so long off my movie radar), and there is the wonderful Kristin Wiig playing Bliss’s mentor (though she is much more fun playing unbalanced, as she did in Knocked Up). Other dropped names are Marcia Gay Harden as the demanding Mum with a heart of stone-flecked gold, Zoe Bell as a super-buff Kiwi team mate (her solid and femininely muscular frame makes the local Americans look like flaccid stick insects) and Eve as the “token black” team member. On the male side, Andrew Wilson (any relation? He definitely acts like one!) shows up as an unhip hippy coach dedicated to the game and not to chasing skirt, while Jimmy Farrell plays the roller ringmaster and gets a few funny lines in while suffering constant rejection from the roller skating ladies.

It’s a very girly movie, which I kind of guessed from the previews (and from the NotKate saying she was keen to see a chick flick), but it’s fun nonetheless. More interesting is the way the roller derby is portrayed. In the USA, or at least in Texas, it seems that the crowd mainly consists of young alpha males yearning to see tough women with imposing names trip each other up and hurling abuse at each other in gloomy underground contests being run on the shy side of the law – though anyone under 22 needs parental permission to participate. Contrast this with the Wellington event I attended earlier this year, held in a clean, well lit events centre with a predominately female (and not altogether straight) crowd egging on the battling beauties and basically ignoring the inane banter on offer from the local commentators.

So it’s a fairly straight-laced version of the game and of life, even as it tries to be alternative. The plot does not demand a huge amount of brain power to understand, and, much like the roller derby course, you can see any bends in the path at fairly predictable and regular intervals. That said, the star wattage on display here – even with a token Drew Barrymore role that probably looked like lots of fun on paper but is actually quite annoying on film – makes up for what the plot and pacing themselves lack.

Verdict: Whip It is fairly easy fare for everyone to watch. Undemanding, not saccharinely sweet and sentimental, and also without a disgustingly syrupy love story (or one hundred, unlike the nauseating trailer for Valentine’s Day), this is a decent chick flick that more sports mad men can enjoy – if not necessarily love – as well. 13 whips out of 22.