Whip It DVD: Review By Brian Gallagher

My experience with roller derby isn't extremely extensive, but it's there nonetheless. I have seen a few bouts back in Minnesota before I moved out here to sunny L.A. and I have even caught an L.A. derby bout, albeit an exhibition bout to promote this film before its theatrical release. While I'm hardly an expert, I do think it's quite an entertaining show and I'm glad this unorthodox sport gets a chance to shine on the silver screen with Whip It, a film that shines in showing us the extremely colorful nature of this sport, even though it uses a rather bland story structure.

The film is essentially a girl-breaks-out-of-her-shell kind of story, only this time, she uses the sport of roller derby to do so. Bliss Cavendar (Ellen Page) is the shy quiet girl that really has just one friend, Pash (Alia Shawkat) that doesn't seem to stand out in any way in her tiny Texas town of Bodeen. She is also essentially forced by her mother (Marcia Gay Harden) to compete in a string of beauty pageants, despite her desire to do so. We actually open the film at one of these pageants where we see Bliss taking the stage with bright blue hair, despite her best efforts to wash it out before she goes on stage. Bliss just really seems to be in a funk, unsure of anything when, on a random shopping venture in Austin, she spots some roller derby girls coming into the shop and dropping off fliers for their next event. Bliss is inspired and sneaks out with Pash to go see this spectacle and is hooked on the sport, stacking up lie after lie so she can go try out for the worst team in the league, the Hurl Scouts. When she makes the team and meets this motley crew of girls like Smashley Simpson (Drew Barrymore), Rosa Sparks (Eve), Bloody Holly (Zoe Bell) and Maggie Mayhem (Kristen Wiig) she thinks she has a new family, even though it draws her further away from her own family and, sadly, leads to a series of inevitable conclusions that are pretty easy to spot from a mile away.

Shauna Cross, an ex-derby skater wrote the novel Derby Girl based off her experiences as an L.A. Derby Doll and this film is not only based on her novel, but she wrote the screenplay as well. While Cross definitely does a fine job pulling us into this world, getting the viewer as hooked on the sport as Bliss does, this whole structure is so over-used and played out that it does tend to hinder the film in some regards. By the time we're past the half-way point of the film, things are set up in ways we've seen them set up a thousand times before and by the time the credits roll, most of the scenarios play out exactly how you think they'll play out. Sure, there are a few curveballs thrown in here and there, but the broad strokes are essentially the same. Still, Cross does a wonderful job with the film's dialogue and the I found the characters to be developed a lot better than I would have thought. Cross also happened to have some very good fortune with this wonderful cast of actors playing these characters also.

Cross wrote the lead of Bliss Cavendar specifically for Ellen Page and after seeing the film, I really can't imagine anyone else playing Bliss as well. She can display an enormous range of emotions and brings depth to characters that few actresses at her young age - 22 - can. Her transformation of Bliss from Fade In to Fade Out is quite wonderful to watch, but this is surely no one-woman show. I thoroughly enjoyed practically every performance here, from Zoe Bell as Bloody Holly, Eve as Rosa Sparks (even though I wished she was used more), Kristen Wiig as Maggie Mayhem, in her most in-depth film performance yet and Drew Barrymore as the wonderfully bizarre Smashley Simpson. Juliette Lewis also has a wonderful baddie turn as Iron Maven, the biggest bad-ass in the league and Bliss' new nemesis, Alia Shawkat has some scene-stealing moments and is quite good as Bliss' best friend Pash and the film even showcases a few real-life derby girls in Kristen Adolfi and Rachel Piplica as the ferocious Manson Sisters, who get an awesome introduction in the film as we see them both pounding on a vending machine. We even get some dudes in the film as well, with Jimmy Fallon playing the announcer Hot Tub Johnny Rockets and Andrew Wilson with a fantastic performance as the Hurl Scouts coach Razor, who really steals the show sometimes. The only performance I didn't like at all was that of singer and first-time actor Landon Pigg, who plays Bliss' boring love interest Oliver, who has a butterknife-dull screen presence and didn't really bring much to the film at all.

Aside from her rather small (but very effective) role as Smashley Simpson, Drew Barrymore also makes her directorial debut here, the latest in the long line of actors to take the helm. I was pretty impressed with what Drew could do behind the camera, not only with this incredibly diverse cast, but her ability to effectively capture this franticly fast-paced sport on film is worth some kudos on its own. I was impressed with the levels of nuances she was able to bring out in Ellen Page, in what might be her most mature and developed performance in her young career, and also bringing out great things from this whole cast as well.

Whip It is a damn solid film that not only puts on display this wacky, wonderful world of roller derby, but gives us perhaps one of the most diverse casts of this past year and shows us the directorial talent of Drew Barrymore. While the structure of this story isn't the most original thing you've ever seen, it's still well worth a watch for this unique world, terrific actors and Drew's directorial debut.

Sadly, we don't get much of anything here. Besides "Sneak Peek" - which is just a collection of videos for the Whip It Soundtrack, "Romantic Favorites" (whatever that is) and trailers for (500) Days of Summer and All About Steve - all we get are some Deleted Scenes here. We get nine of them total, which starts off with an Alternate Opening that actually fits in really nicely with where Bliss ends up at the end of the film. It's not even that long and I think they should've used it. The next one is an extended scene in the truck with Bliss and her mom, but this time she kicks Bliss out of the truck, but comes back and gets her after a few seconds. The next one is another extended scene with the dudes at the diner but there is another really interesting part here that they should've kept, with Pash yelling at Colby and his friends, only to have a cop come up to her and remind her that he's their quarterback and she should show him some respect. They touch on the insanity of the football culture a little bit in the film, but this would've been a nice added part as well. The next one has Bliss and Pash on the roof of the restaurant and Birdman having a weird convo about sex that isn't too necessary, nor is the next one where Pash is defending her Chevy Celebrity's honor. The next one isn't really necessary either but it's a decent little scene with Razor quitting and again with the next where Bliss uses her wily female charms to get the CD from Oliver. The next one is actually really good, but since they cut the scene with Razor quitting, they had to cut this too, where Bliss tries to get Razor to come back and the last scene is kind of lame too with Maggie and her kid waking Bliss up. Aside from the alternate ending, which I think they should've used, the rest should've been deleted, but some of these are pretty good though.

The film is presented in the widescreen format, but I just received the screener disc and it wasn't said what the aspect ratio is.

The sound is handled through the Dolby Digital 5.1 format.

Again, I received a screener disc for this, but it looks like the front cover is practically the same as the one-sheet poster, with a title card and a shot of Page in her roller derby attire.

Whip It is a solid little film that casts an overdue spotlight on the world of roller derby and, even though it uses rather conventional story methods to tell this tale, it's a tale worth seeing.