I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed `Whip It'. I was expecting a fairly innocuous comedy film, but this is laugh out loud funny, a feel good film that is also kind of endearing and it has a kick ass soundtrack, not bad for Barrymore's directional debut.
Bliss is a seventeen year old girl who lives in a quiet Texan town, she works at a local diner, she likes rock music and her mum encourages her to enter beauty pageants. Then everything gets turned upside down when she finds and joins a roller derby team and a love interest in the guise of a guitarist in a local band. Before long she is breaking out of her shell, as well as breaking some heads as she whips her way round the derby ring. She finds an alternative, outlandish family in her team mates and has to balance her mums aspirations for her and her own dreams in life.
Ellen Page is excellent as Bliss and all of her team mates are superb as alternative, fun loving girls with heart. Barrymore is hilarious in the side role she plays, as is the feisty Juliette Lewis and all of the `stage names' the girls take on will crack you up. The crashes and bashes on the track will make you laugh and wince in equal measures. You'll come away from this with a warm glow and feeling good and will have had some real solid laughs throughout, what more can you ask for.
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