Life well-played
Drew Barrymore’s ‘Whip It’ searches for the meaning of life in small-town Texas
By Carl Kozlowski 10/01/2009
Hollywood rarely bothers to get small-town, average American lives right anymore. In an age of big-budget special-effects pictures that can depict Earth’s destruction or the surface of Mars more powerfully than they can touch the human heart, it’s a rare treat to find a film that — in the tradition of sports classics like “Rocky,” “Rudy” and “Breaking Away” — not only focuses on the small triumphs of real lives, but champions them in a way that uplifts viewers.
With her directorial debut “Whip It,” actress Drew Barrymore has added to that short list of films that will be watched and remembered fondly for years to come. Centering on a sterling, multi-faceted performance by Ellen Page, who stole filmgoers’ hearts with her Oscar-nominated turn as the title character in “Juno” two years ago, the film is by turns exciting, funny and — when it really counts — touching. It’s easily one of the year’s best films so far.
“Whip It” depicts the life of Bliss Cavendar, who shares Juno’s innate sweetness but is a comparatively plain-spoken girl who wants to escape her tiny town of Bodeen, Texas, without knowing how to achieve that goal. Her best friend Pash (Alia Shawkat) is a better student and hopes to ride an Ivy League scholarship out of town, but Bliss doesn’t have the book skills to pull off the same. Instead, she feels trapped by her former beauty queen mother’s (Marcia Gay Harden) hope that she’ll also be a beauty queen — the last thing Bliss wants.
While on a boot-shopping trip to Austin with her mom and younger sister, Bliss sees a team of female roller-derby skaters race into the store. Fascinated by their tough demeanor, Bliss enlists Pash to take her to the next night’s match — a decision that will transform her life.
Riveted by the nonstop, fast-paced action on the track, as well as the rowdy clowning and trash-talking that takes place on the rink, Bliss senses an empowerment and sisterhood she’s never felt before. Receiving an invite from a skater named Marilyn Mayhem (a terrific Kristin Wiig), Bliss decides to attend the next tryout and makes the team. But she also has to contend with rivalry from jealous older skater Iron Maven (Juliette Lewis at her bad-ass best), who threatens to find a loophole that will ruin Bliss’ opportunity. Soon living a double life as a small-town high school student and a big-city rolle-derby star, Bliss also navigates the ups and downs of first love with a seemingly dreamy young rocker played by real-life musician Landon Pigg. But amid the turbulence, she comes to appreciate the people and things that truly matter and works on ways to build her own sense of esteem and a meaningful life.
In showing her transformation, “Whip It” takes viewers along the well-traveled territory of coming-of-age tales. What makes it special, however, is the incredible attention to detail that Barrymore has brought to the project, virtually immersing viewers in a way of life that often seems forgotten in the age of globalism and Hollywood’s love of depicting fast-paced materialism rather than the things that truly matter in life: family, true love, and having a core sense of values and self-respect.
The characters shown are real people we all can recognize, including the most realistic and balanced parental figures (Harden and her on-screen husband, memorably portrayed by Daniel Stern) since the late teen-movie king John Hughes paid respect to Pops everywhere with sweet roles in “Sixteen Candles” and “Some Kind of Wonderful.” As the derby announcer (a funny Jimmy Fallon) says at one point, don’t worry if you don’t understand the rules of roller derby— “Whip It” is not about the game itself, but how to live a life well-played.
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