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Movie Review: Whip It ( *** )

AHN — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 11:05:40 +0000

She brought the family acting gene with her when she started working on movie sets at age five and began taking direction from the likes of Steven Spielberg. But apparently she paid attention too.

Because Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut is a winner, a heartfelt, energetic, audience-friendly comedy set in the world of roller derby competition.

Whip It is a coming-of-age tale, a mother-daughter story, a female bonding dramedy, and a sports flick about an underdog on an underdog team. With a screenplay by roller-derby athlete Shauna Cross — based on her own novel, Derby Girl — it’s the first mainstream movie about the sport since 1972’s Kansas City Bomber with Raquel Welch.

Juno’s Ellen Page stars as Bliss Cavendar, a 17-year-old waitress in the small town of Bodeen, Texas, going through the motions of entering Little Miss Sunshine-like beauty pageants while wishing she could find her bliss somewhere other than on the pageant circuit.

But, obedient daughter that she is, she cooperates with her highly motivated, mail-carrier mother, played by Marcia Gay Harden, while her dad, Daniel Stern, notices her lack of interest in the pageants but keeps his observation to himself.

Bliss thinks she just might have found her path when she accidentally discovers the spectator sport of female roller derbying in nearby Austin.

The local team that she comes to know is the worst team in the league, the Hurl Scouts, coached by Andrew Wilson (older brother of Owen and Luke). Intrigued, Bliss brushes up on her skating, lies about her age, and tries out for the team.

The coach is impressed that she’s so naturally fast, even though the sport would appear to be far too violent for her small stature and ladylike demeanor. But she makes the team because she’s small and speedy, two useful attributes given derby strategy, and she takes the name, “Babe Ruthless.”

That means living a double life for the rest of the season, as she somehow manages to keep her switch from runway to roller rink a secret from her parents.

Simultaneoulsy, the newly liberated Bliss embarks on a new romance with a local musician, an indie rocker played by Landon Pigg.

Director Barrymore (she also served as an executive producer) gets solid performances from not only principals Page and Harden, who are splendid, but Kristen Wigg as a teammate, Juliette Lewis as a rival, Alai Shawkat as Bliss’s best friend, and improvising Jimmy Fallon as the derby announcer. And the presence of Stern, also fine, brings to mind another delightful movie that this one resembles structurally and sometimes tonally, 1979’s Breaking Away, the bicycle racing movie in which Stern made his movie acting debut the year before Barrymore made hers.

Barrymore doesn’t make Bliss’s immediately demonstrated skill in the rink all that persuasive, and doesn’t really try to convey the effect of all the game violence on the players. But her coverage of the game action is fine, she nicely captures the teammate camaraderie, she renders Austin a virtual character without overdoing the tourist shots, and her celebration of female empowerment registers without preachiness.

Moreover, the echoes of her own wunderkind story, her relationship with her own mother, and her high-profile coming of age lend the film a ripe resonance.

Is Drew Barrymore just dabbling behind the camera? Too early to tell, but it would seem not: she just may be a real director.

This charming, breezy, and unpretentious winning entertainment has been knowingly whipped together and lovingly crafted. Drew and her crew make quite a debut: Whip It is with it and worth it.

Bill Wine – Celebrity News Service Movie Critic/ AHN

111 minutes

In theaters October 2, 2009

Rating: PG-13, Comedy

Sexual Love Secondary to Drew Barrymore

Bang — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:45:47 +0000

Drew Barrymore says sexual love is “secondary to her”.

The ‘Whip It’ actress who has been divorced twice and is rumored to have rekindled her romance with actor Justin Long, no longer seeks out romance as she wants to concentrate on other aspects of her life.

She explained, “Sexual love is secondary to me right now. I’ve spent a lot of time in my life dedicating myself to love or the pursuit of love or the understanding of love. But for the last few years, my life just hasn’t been about that for me. It’s just not about the mother baggage. It’s not about the boy. It’s about something completely different, and it’s very refreshing. I’m trying to understand it and relish it.”

The 34-year-old star is also trying to put her troubled childhood behind her.

She completed her first stint in rehab aged 13, and tried to kill herself a year later. She had a notoriously difficult relationship with her mother Ildiko Jaid, resulting in her choosing not to live with her when she left rehab for the second time aged 14.

The pair became legally emancipated in 1991.

Although Drew has gained inspiration from her turbulent family life for many of her on screen performances, she didn’t need to for new movie ‘Whip It’ – which is about a girl called Bliss whose mother is determined for her to enter beauty pageants, although she prefers roller skating.

She told Parade magazine, “I used to pull a lot emotionally from all the stuff with my family. But oddly, with ‘Whip It’ I didn’t have the emotional bones to pull from because my mom and I are separated. But those tumultuous, sort of scandalous aspects of a mother-daughter relationship, of course I had those with my mom, so, if needed, I can bring a lot to the table in my heart and soul with that. But the things I have been trying to reach in these two projects are oddly separate from that. They are more about me defining myself on my own terms.”

Drew Barrymore and Justin Long back together

Duncan Riley — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 13:00:09 +0000

Drew Barrymore and Justin “I’m a Mac” Long are back together as a couple.

The pair, who broke up in July 2008 after dating for a year, were spotted holding hands leaving a Green Day concert at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Hollywood. Thursday. (June 4.) Rumors of the pair being back to together have circulated for months, and it was known that they had remained good friends since breaking up.

Barrymore and Long were also recently seen at Disneyland, where they rode rides together, as all mature adult couples should.

Epic Photoshopping: Drew Barrymore does W Magazine

Duncan Riley — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:06:24 +0000

Drew Barrymore appears in the coming edition of W magazine to talk shop and be photoshopped (yes, the picture above is of Drew Barrymore).

Interview highlights include:

On working hard to be happy: “I get out of bed with a spring in my step like, I’m going to f—in’ rock this day. I’m going to make people happy. Here I go.”

On her 5 year relationship with ex-boyfriend Fabrizio Moretti of the Strokes: “One of the most, if not the most, important relationships I’ve had in my life. We’re still very close. I’m just learning who I am and how relationships work and how to make them function. No different from anyone else.”

On her relationship with her own mother being “the polar opposite” of a love story: “My mother and I split ways when I was very young and have never really reconciled.”

You can see some of the other photos in W here. Epic photoshopping. Just epic.

Drew Barrymore pierces her tongue

Duncan Riley — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 23:26:36 +0000

Drew Barrymore has an extra hole, but in a good way: in her tongue.

The actress talked to Ellen DeGeneres about the experience, explaining that it didn’t hurt much at first but the pain intensified, and that she couldn’t eat or drink for two week, making for a “sick, sadistic and weird diet.”

Despite the obvious benefits, Drew claims that the ring is scaring away men: “I got it and then I’ve been single ever since. I did it for myself. I always wanted to get one.”

Here’s Drew Barrymore on Ellen talking tongue piercing:

He’s Just Not That Into You Trailer

Duncan Riley — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 01:09:47 +0000

He’s Just Not That Into You see’s an all star cast appear in a new film based on the self-help book of the same name by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo.

The plot chronicles the romantic misadventures of several individuals in their twenties and thirties with one person in each relationship is more “into” the other person than vice versa.

Produced by Drew Barrymore’s Flower Films, it stars Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Scarlett Johansson, Justin Long, Jennifer Connelly, Ginnifer Goodwin, Kevin Connolly, and Bradley Cooper; and is being directed by Ken Kwapis.

The release date for He’s Just Not That Into You is February 6 for the US, with other major markets later in the month.

Drew Barrymore Protests Proposition 8

Meieli Sawyer — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:57:28 +0000

This past weekend, Drew Barrymore took to the streets with fellow protesters on Prop 8 and swept through the streets, where she ended up getting hold of the microphone and telling the exhausted crowd “I will fight with you!” The protest had been 15,000 people strong earlier that night, starting at Silver Lake and ending up in West Hollywood about 8 and a half hours later.

I’m embarrassed, but I cried a little when I heard Drew speak to the crowd. I wonder what celebs will turn up during the National Protest Prop 8 protests on November 15th?

Justin Long’s New Romance: Trading Down?

Meieli Sawyer — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 21:25:04 +0000

After hanging out with fans and giving them some love, lanky Justin Long has moved on. According to recent buzz, he met his current flame Kirsten Dunst at Sunset Junction in L.A. when the sun went down last weekend. Rush & Molloy reported that one of the waitresses saw them “all over each other” and “making out hard-core while waiting in line for margaritas.”

Maybe Justin Long was only sexy when he had Drew Barrymore by his side, ’cause I’m not really feeling it anymore. Maybe it has something to do with this very gross photo of him with Kirsten Dunst, and the thought of them PDA-ing all over the place. I keep picturing Kirsten dressed like this, which is so not helping.

Dirty kisses indeed.

Images: WireImage

Was Justin Burned Oh-So-Bad?

Meieli Sawyer — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:18:12 +0000

Is Drew Barrymore this cold? Ouch. According to E! Online’s source, Justin Long dropped out of Whip It!, Drew’s first feature film directorial, because “He couldn’t stand working with her and not being with her” and that “He’s too upset.” And there’s more:

“She dumped him. She was hot and cold. One minute she was in love with him and the next she wanted to break up with him. He is so distraught over the split that he dropped out of the movie.”

Since Justin’s involvement with the film, according to Chris Miller (a rep for Flower Films), “border[s] on his personal life,” we’re not going to get an answer there, either. I hope his rep sets things straight soon– they announced the breakup in early July, and I’m sure he wants to get over it.

Perhaps some time at Comi-Con will help Justin forget about his troubles? That’s where he’s supposed to be this weekend. While it wouldn’t do it for me, he can do what he wants until the whole shebang is cleared up.

Image: WENN