WHIP IT - Whip It Mediocre

WHIP IT is another odd beast of a film. Drew Barrymore's directorial debut is an underdog sports movie and the story of an outsider learning to fit in. A little bit of both and not enough of either.

SPOILERS SKATING AROUND BELOW

Bliss (Ellen Page) lives in a dinky town in Texas, where her mom, a former pageant queen, pushes her to enter beauty pageants. After stumbling across roller derby, Bliss lies about being old enough to play. She finds a new family in her team, the Hurl Scouts, and discovers she's really good at -- and enjoys -- roller derby. Eventually, her mother and father discover her lies and a rival discovers she's not old enough to be playing.

And you can figure out what happens from there.

There are two major problems with the film.

First, roller derby isn't that great of a sport. There's a reason why it hasn't really experienced much of a renaissance outside of hipster cities like Austin and LA. It's fun to go to and watch girls beat each other up while you drink some Pabst Blue Ribbon. But in the way of athletics, it's pretty much the same thing each time -- girls skating around a track trying to pass each other to score points. Even having coach Razor (a hilarious Andrew Wilson) obsess over doing "plays" doesn't really liven up the sports action; it's still just women skating in a circle. This removes almost any stakes from the sports scenes.

Second, the film's big dramatic highs aren't particularly high. Take for example Bliss's age being discovered by a rival. Okay, she's seventeen, and not old enough to play. Movie over. Except not, because she can play with one of her parents' permission. Not much of an obstacle. What about Bliss' friend Pash getting arrested for underage drinking? Will that screw up her chances of attending an Ivy League college? Apparently not. How about Bliss losing her virginity to a young musician who turns out to be a jerk? Well, she'll just burn his jacket and then slap him in the face.

Since nothing's particularly at stake, there's nothing rooting the viewer's interest in the film. What happens if Bliss can't play roller derby? We don't know. The film could have set a lot of this up better by making a bigger deal of the folks stuck in the town, particularly Bliss' mom. it would have been nice to see another girl, a little older than Bliss, who tried to go away and make something of her life. But she didn't and is now stuck there in town in a crummy job (like the one Bliss has at the BBQ joint). Some contrast would have highlighted the drudgery of small-town life and given Bliss something to aim for and some consequences if she failed.

It's a shame, because the movie is certainly fun, and has a great cast, from Page to Alia Shawkat, Kristen Wiig, Barrymore, Juliette Lewis, Daniel Stern, and Marcia Gay Harden. But not Jimmy Fallon, who's as mugging and annoying as he was on SNL.