Whip It Review

The underlying story in Whip It is a classic one, with teenager and parents not agreeing on the future of said teenager. As is normally the case, the parents want better for their kids than what they had, but the kids are expressing their individuality. They don't want what's necessarily best for them, but what feels good at the moment. Yet, there's a really wide gap between pageant queen and roller derby queen.

The young woman in question here is Bliss Cavendar (Ellen Page). Her mother, Brooke (Marcia Gay Harden) wants both her girls to be pageant queens like she was, yet she wants them to go even further to a good college, so they aren't stuck working as a mail carrier like her. Bliss' younger sister plays up the pageant queen to the hilt, but for Bliss, it isn't that easy. While the girls she's competing against answer the question, "If you could have dinner with anyone, living or dead, who would it be?" with predictable answers of "God, because God is great," and "my grandfather ... I love you, Papa," Bliss answers "Amelia Earhart, because she's a pioneer of aviation and a great woman in history."

Bliss, her sister, and her mom, leave their small town of Bodeen, Texas for the day to go shopping in Austin, and Bliss falls in love with a pair of combat boots. Her mom is consigned to buying them for her, then makes a comment on all the pretty vases at the store. She realizes what they really are, and tells Bliss it's "irresponsible to buy shoes from a head shop." Bliss buys them with her own money anyway, and before leaving sees a poster about an upcoming roller derby.

At work in the local diner with her best friend Pash (Alia Shawkat), she puts up with the taunting of the popular kids, then talks Pash into going to the roller derby with her. They know they'd never be allowed to go, and sneak out, lying to their parents that they're going to a football game, and actually go as far as to wear jerseys and carry pennants with them, making it very hard to believe their parents actually fall for that.

After the derby, Bliss goes backstage to tell the Hurl Scouts how they're her new heroes, and the team leader, Maggie Mayhem (Kristen Wiig), suggests she should be her own hero. She answers she would, but the last time she had skates on, they had pictures of Barbie on them. Nevertheless, this sticks with her and she decides to try out, digging the old skates out of the attic and practicing.

When Bliss makes the team, taking on the name Babe Ruthless, alongside Maggie, Smashly Simpson, and Rosa Sparks (Wiig along with Drew Barrymore and Eve), she lies and tells her mom she's going to SAT classes, then hitches a ride on the Bingo Bus. She also picks up a secret boyfriend, Oliver (Landon Pigg), lying to everyone about her real age, not letting them know she's a high school student.

And, of course, we know how that will all end up, as the old adage tells us, "Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." She sets herself up quite a web, lying to her parents, her team, and her boyfriend, and stuck in the middle of it all is her best friend. But by the end, she gets it together and realizes where her heart really is.