A joy for feminists

Rating: 8/10 (9 April 2010)

Righto, yesterday, I saw a cheery film called Whip It, which was more or less billed as Juno (one of my favourites) with less pregnancy and more rollerskates. The directorial debut of ex-wild child Drew Barrymore, it chronicles a 17-year-old Ellen Page, stuck in a small town, working at the local greasy spoon, and pushed into beauty pageants by her mother. One day, whilst in a head shop (I had to look up what this meant), she sees an advertisement for roller derby. For the uninitiated (of which I was certainly one), there is a short explanation of the sport, but it largely seems to involve women elbowing each other in the face whilst skating in a circle, and giving yourself a name like Smashley Simpson (Barrymore) or Iron Maven (Juliette Lewis).
The team Ellen (Bliss/Babe Ruthless) joins is none too good, preferring hot tubs and copious consumption of alcohol to actual practice, but they seem to have enough fun, until their coach, Razor, decides to teach the opposition one of his beautifully crafted moves that his own protégés prefer to ignore. Cue speedy resurgence and the typical sports movie cliché of the big final towards the end of the reel. Of course, Bliss' mother is none too receptive of her new hobby, masqueraded at first as an extra SAT class (SATs aren't as pointless in America as they are here), whilst her somewhat more relaxed father just wants her to be happy.
It's not perfect; the attempt at a love story seems almost half-hearted, and is sort of superfluous, and some of the lines are filled with so many pop-culture references that only the most socially aware can grasp the entirety of the film. The USP though is that it's so much fun. It's best watched in a group of late teens, the demographic it's presumably aimed at. It challenges stereotypes, as Bliss yells at her mother. It shows roller derby as a refuge for punk-esquire women who feel that the rigidly conservative Deep South society (though this is by no means a Texan phenomenon) they've been born into isn't adventurous enough for them, and aren't afraid to act in a way that many may consider outrageous for females. It shows, as Maggie Mayhem says, that you can "be your own hero" rather than looking up to people, and it's such a change from all the teen-aimed movies where women are judged (often by other women) for challenging the stereotype that's been lain down on them (anyone who does judge is frowned upon here, as in Juno). You get the feeling that the stars really bonded and Bliss' onstage relationship with her BBF, Pash (rising star Alia Shawkat) seems so real (and it is); it's a really refreshing two-hour bout of entertainment that doesn't take itself too seriously =].
Oh, and for guys, there are attractive women in fishnets flooring each other, though this was of course not the only reason I liked it. Nuh-uh.