Coming-of-age story facilitated by Roller Derby.

Rating: Null/10 (3 June 2010)

First off, this movie set in Bodeen, Texas was filmed entirely in Michigan. Second, as far as I can figure, there is no town in Texas called Bodeen.
On the surface this would seem to be a movie with Roller Derby as its theme. I always figured Roller Derby was entertainment in the same way that professional wrestling is entertainment, and the movie pretty much depicts it that way. While the women may look mean on skates, off the rink they are just a bunch or ordinary, friendly ladies.
Ellen Page as Bliss Cavendar finds herself drawn to the sport, when she makes an unrelated trip to Austin and sees a poster. She goes back, not telling her parents the truth, and inexplicably gets urged by one of the players to come back for try-outs.
Bliss has two big problems. First, she can barely skate. Second, her mother, Marcia Gay Harden as Brooke Cavendar, grew up in the beauty pageant circuit and expects Bliss to follow in her footsteps. Bliss has done that, so far at 17, but her heart really isn't in it. She wants to get out from under her mother's stifling influence. She ends up claiming she is 22 to get a try-out.
So Bliss learns to skate well and, even though she is very small, turns out to also be very fast, so small and fast is perfect to break through and circle the track to score points for her team. When her mother and father finally find out about her Roller Derby passion, the "comng-of-age" discussions begin.
The ladies on the team, mainly in their 30s, turn out to be good friends to Bliss and help her see a part of life that she had not been exposed to in her small town. They are played by such actresses as Kristen Wiig (Maggie Mayhem), Drew Barrymore (Smashley Simpson), Juliette Lewis (Iron Maven) and others with such monikers as "Rosa Sparks", "Bloody Holly", and "Eva Destruction".
It was good to see Andrew Wilson, older brother of Owen and Luke Wilson, as the coach, "Razor".
So, while there is a strong Roller Derby theme, it is just there as a vehicle. The movie is about Bliss, her friends, and her family coming to terms with what is really important in their lives, and what they really want to do. Good movie.