A classic teen movie!! I wish I'd seen this when I was a teenager.

Rating: 10/10 (12 July 2010)

The teen movie is a genre that has always fascinated me with its ability to give kind of profound insight into what it means to be yourself and the state of humanity. A good teen movie is always a great slice of life for the time and place it is set as it is usually immersed in the pop culture of the time. Look at 80's teen movies, they're like time capsules. Whip It!, for me was a brilliant, brilliant teen movie. It features a complicated heroine, Bliss, who often makes very wrong decisions and who slowly tries to find out who she is and over time, she does. It also features a wide variety of grown-ups with equally complicated issues. Bliss's mom, who is a former beauty queen and still incredibly beautiful but works as a postman in the most unflattering uniform ever invented makes for a very sympathetic villain.
Now, don't get the wrong idea about Whip It! It's not a serious, whingy, moany, emo film, it is the best fun I've had in the cinema in ages. Roller derby! Who would've thought it could be so cool. Hot girls with silly hair, red lips, short skirts and fishnets. I'm mad up for that! OK, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Whip It! is a big girlfest right? Well, technically it is. But I'm one hundred percent sure that if I were a man I'd be just as down with this movie as I am in my current body. Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, it's easy to see what attracted her to the script. In some ways it is as full of clichés as any other teen movie but it sets up these clichés in order to smash them! Ellen Page, is infinitely more likable here than usual because the script gives her more to work with than just quippy one-liners. The supporting cast are also amazing with Juliette Lewis, Kristen Wiig and Barrymore herself bringing a touch of hilarity and spunk to proceedings. Another thing to admire is the lack of girliness on the roller derby track. The girls are rough, there's plenty of blood and bruises and the stunts are great! Like all good sports movies, the competition sequences were shot with a sense of sweaty mayhem that keeps the audience feeling exhuberant. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I wanna be Drew Barrymore when I grow up! You may call this predictable and formulaic but you can't deny that it is fresh and exciting. The cast are top-notch, the skating sequences are exciting and the script is both intelligent and hilarious at times. Unless you're dead against this type of movie, you'll have a blast!