'Whip It' a film by actress Drew Barrymore

Whip It is Drew Barrymore's first directing gig. The movie based off of Shauna Cross's book ,Derby Girl, is really empowering to girls as the theme of the movie is be your own hero its a great theme and one I've taken to heart. Barrymore must really believe in this too because she could have chosen any book to adapt to a movie, but this one was about a girl finding herself drawn to a sport where she is urged to ' make a hit' and 'be ruthless.' Of course the girl, Bliss Cavendar has to overcome the power her mother has on her, and break away from her diminutive 'Blue Bonnet' pageants.


Bliss goes from the her mother's beauty queen to a rough and tough derby chick who isn't afraid to hip check girls inside and out of the ring, as she proves when she knocks her pageant nemesis over a rail at school. You can really see Bliss start coming out of her shell as she becomes the star of her team the Hurl Scouts and finds a new arch enemy in rival team the Holy Rollers Iron Maven. Iron Maven and Babe Ruthless (Bliss' derby name) are put head to head repeatedly with the Holy Rollers always winning. The relationship between the two athletic women even threatens Bliss at one point, when Maven finds out she is only seventeen in a twenty-two and over league. Although Bliss then admits to the team her true age she is welcomed back on board as the mascot, unless she can get a parent's signature. Iron Maven uses her age as a reason Bliss shouldn't be in the derby, she says it took her thirty one years to find something she was really good at and Bliss shouldn't take it away from her because it's not her turn yet.

Even though the movie ends generically in one aspect it is also very feminist-ly satisfying, shall I say? Bliss 'grows a pair' and isn't afraid to kick some butt; girl or guy( when she slaps her bf for cheating.) Which leads me to the point of Bliss' BF he isn't even cute (AT ALL) but she is crazy about him, for reasons unknown. I think that moment they have their first one on one chat is soo cheesy "By day I work at the local oink-joint...but by night..."(interrupted by Oliver's dweeb). Because that whole exchange is so scripted, who talks slowly and thoughtfully when talking to the person their heart beats for? It was just too planned. And then when Oliver's buddy calls him to fetch someone's guitar from his locked car their little exchange that I could tell was supposed to come off manly and bromantic accidentally came off as overplayed and tacky. So, Oliver is sadly the worst part of this film, the only reason he doesn't kill the movie is the song he sings in Bliss' kicking butt taking names sequence called "High Times"







I think Bliss' friend Pash was really cool, apparently she is from the show "Arrested Development" which I have never watched. She is up and coming though with this role she could see a lot more roles made for her character, because she is definately a good enough actress.