✭✭✭

So I saw Whip It yesterday. I liked it. It was a fun movie - not amazing, but still good.

Directed by Drew Barrymore and starring Ellen Page, Whip It is about Bliss Cavendar, a 17-year-old 'indie' girl with a mother who tries to make her an elegant young lady by forcing her into many-a-beauty-pageant. Indie chicks don't dig that sort of stuff. Bliss stumbles across a roller derby event in Austin, and gets hooked on the idea of joining this motley crew of derby-rollers.... I've forgotten the name of their team. Sorry.

The film includes all the stereotypical archetypes of a teenage movie; I've mentioned Bliss already as the indie protagonist, and here she is pictured with Pash, her BFF - they work at this diner that sells this huge burger called the Squealer ... eat it in three minutes and it's free. Probably one of my favorite characters in the film due to her being one of the most fleshed-out, Pash is Bliss's one-man (woman?) support crew outside of the rollerskating team itself. She's your typical You-break-her-heart-I'll-break-your-face kind of best friend, and the fact that she can drive comes in handy when Bliss needs to get to the roller derby. They have their ups and downs throughout the film, as expected.

Then there's the *swoon* cute blond boy who can play the guitar and sing indie songs. This is so cliche it's cringe-worthy ... in fact, most if not all of the scenes between Bliss and Oliver are cringe-worthy. I fast-forwarded some of them ... let's just say that frolics in hay fields and underwater kissing scenes are not my thing. Unless they're in a film by Baz Luhrman.
The only bit between this clunky couple that made me smile was when Bliss and Pash first catch sight of the cute blond boy and Pash shoves Bliss almost into his arms, calling out, 'Don't say I never gave you anything!' At least she meant well.

Next up we have .... IRON MAVEN. The bad-guy, basically. She is unfortunately underdeveloped and her best move is shutting Bliss in a locker in one of their first meetings. Yeah.

Other stereotypical characters include the Mother-who-just-doesn't-understand-her-teenager, the Mentor - (a fellow rollerskater played by Kristen Wiig), the comic relief (yes, I'm talking about Drew Barrymore smashing her face into a pole and breaking her nose), and the I'm-joking-no-actually-I'm-not-but-that-was-sarcasm coach of the team.

So, I've said a lot about how typical the characters are, but the movie is totally a lot of fun. The energetic performances are complemented by a cool indie soundtrack featuring ... er ... a bunch of nifty bands I don't actually know anything about. Anyway.

There's a lot to like about this film. The leading lady is young, but she’s tough. The best part is the girls don’t cry when they get slogged in the guts. High fives all round for being tough cookies. But just three stars.