Review of Whip It

Drew Barrymore's directorial debut looks at a Texas girl's aspirations of joining a roller derby team. The unfulfilled Bliss is a role that Ellen Page was born to play, and the same goes for Marcia Gay Harden as Bliss's overbearing mother. But the best parts of the are the skating scenes. The team members have satirical names (Bloody Holly, Rosa Sparks) and spend the roller derby brutally shoving each other off the track. But more than anything, one gets a sense of how miserable it must be to live in the backwards town like the one where Bliss lives, especially with her mother pushing her to be a beauty queen. I should say that "Whip It" isn't a masterpiece, but it still does a perfect job showing Bliss's strength and resolve to achieve her dream, along with the occasional bumps along the way. I recommend it.

Also starring Daniel Stern, Alia Shawkat, Jimmy Fallon, Kristen Wiig, Zoe Bell, Eve and Juliette Lewis.