Whip It

Oh, coming-of-age stories, how I love thee so. This is exactly what this is. Ellen Page plays a nerdy-ish high school girl who just didn’t fit in. Then one day, she saw 3 roller girls float into a clothing store and it changed her forever. She then tried out and actually was the fastest of the group of newbies. Long story short, she made the team and is thrown into this brand new world of feminine angst and over aggression.

Whip It trailer

The girls coach is definitely a trip. He reminds me of Shawn William Scott in BALLS OUT, which I actually enjoyed. He plays a burned out tennis pro turned high school instructor. The dad is played by Daniel Stern and anything Daniel does is gold. BUSHWHACKED and VERY BAD THINGS being two of my favorites. Haha. Jimmy Fallon plays the center ring announcer and he actually adds a lot to the film. If only his late night show was as funny and interesting as his 2 on screen minutes throughout the film. Zing!

So the film has some genuinely funny moments and it reminded me kind of like an AMERICAN PIE meets BOTTLE ROCKET with a AFTER SUNSET/BEFORE SUNRISE/BENNY AND JOON romantic subplot thrown in – that probably didn’t make much sense now that I think about it, but I’ll leave it in there.

Throughout the film there are some great one liners that I really enjoyed. I tried to capture a few of them: “Let’s celebrate mediocrity! Yeah, that’s fantastic.” “My belly hurts. There’s a storm in there.” “Here’s twenty dollars. You know how little money I have. Please just run the play.” I also really enjoy the scene where Ellen knocks the snobby girl over the railing. I actually re-watched that like three times. The pool scene was fun to watch and creative, and I even liked how they setup the food fight sequence. And they used RADIOHEAD’S – NO SURPRISES?!?! Amazing.\

My wife was right, I really enjoyed this film from start to finish. It stayed fresh throughout and kept my attention through each act. And if you think about it it’s pretty amazing that a film can concentrate on a sport like roller derby for close to an hour and still make it interesting all the way throughout. And I actually learned how the sport works now. Lol

Rating: 9/10
RT: 84%