Terrific and entertaining!! A real gem! Way to go Drew!

Rating: 8/10 (1 February 2010)

The first time I saw a trailer for Whip It I thought it looked decent enough and it could be a fun film. There is nothing better than when a film exceeds all your expectations and really impresses you and that is exactly what this film did. Whip It is in the simplest form is just downright fun. Solid performances (even some by people I don't care for), great characters, and just a fun feel good movie that doesn't hold back. If anything can be said for Drew Barrymore's directorial debut she knows how to put together a good story. I might even go so far as to say that the film is extremely under rated and doesn't seem to appeal to people as much as I would have thought. I can promise you this that if you just sit back and relax and truly enjoy having fun you'll come out of the movie with a smile on your face. My single disappointment with the film was that I expected some really intense emotion towards the end and it never really delivers on that front. I was fully prepared to actually swallow my masculinity and tear up but it was never necessary. So while it might fall short from some great emotion it is still a really amazing fun movie.
Desperately trying to move beyond the just Juno phase Ellen Page plays quirky and quiet Bliss Cavender. She does a terrific job and she definitely has amazing screen presence which she proved when she blazed on the screen in Juno (average movie, amazing role). She is simply watchable and you root for her and she plays the roller derby role like a pro. Two truly outstanding supporting roles to watch for are by the versatile amazing Marcia Gay Harden and Daniel Stern. Harden is terrific as the straight laced reserved mother and Stern is simply amazing (best role I've ever seen him in outside of Marv in Home Alone) as Bliss' loving if not slightly distant father. Both of them have small roles but are truly excellent in their roles. Kristen Wiig is one of my least favorite Saturday Night Live cast members and I just usually can't stomach her performances and yet here she is giving an incredibly serious and really solid performance as single mother and roller champ 'Maggie Mayhem.' Similarly Jimmy Fallon gives a decent, very tolerable performance as roller derby host Johnny Rocket. The rest of the girls are a solid and fun cast including director herself Drew Barrymore, Zoe Bell, Eve and another of my least favorite actresses Juliette Lewis who is also very good in her role. Also deserving honorable mention is a small supporting role by actress Alia Shawkat as Juno's...errr I mean Ellen Paige's best friend Pash. She is awesome and I hope to see her do some really great roles in the future.
Drew Barrymore put together a terrific ensemble to rally around a terrific character brought to my life by Ellen Paige. If anything could be said about Barrymore is that she brings the very best out of her cast. She managed to take several rather loud and potentially obnoxious comedians (Fallon, Wiig, Lewis) and gives them a much more serious and toned down persona that shows off their very best. Whip It is an adventure for a lot of people behind the scenes. Barrymore in her directorial debut and the writer of the novel as well as the screenplay Shauna Cross appears to be new to screen writing, and I think the performances in the film are a new style to a lot of the actors too. No matter how you shake it Whip It is just a blast. It's fun and touching and anybody can sit down and enjoy it. See this movie and do yourself a favor. And shockingly enough they do not play the overplayed movie song "Whip It." Weird eh? 8.5/10