WHIP IT

“Whip It,” Drew Barrymore’s debut as a film director, is a coming-of-age story that is at once sweet and self-aware.

Bliss, played charismatically by Ellen Page, is a 17-year-old high school senior who spends her free time waitressing at The Oink Joint with her best friend Pash and appeasing her mother by participating in beauty pageants.

Feeling lost and confined by the small town where she lives, Bliss begins to look for something more – something with meaning.

What she finds is roller derby, and what kicks butt more than taking control of your own life by attempting something so extremely cool?

Bliss joins the Hurl Scouts, lying about her age to get on the team, which happens to rank last in the Austin, Texas, circuit. The team comprises an extremely unorthodox group of women, but their chemistry is amazing.

Led by a jean-shorts-wearing coach named Razor, the girls completely ignore the playbook and for the most part, do their own thing. The most moving of the women is Maggie Mayhem (Kristen Wigg), a single mom who, though slightly ditzy, has the most heart of any character.

Bliss soon learns that every road has speed bumps – and while her bruises are far from metaphorical, each stumble makes us fall a little more in love with her, such as the devastation first love brings her and her realization that sometimes doing what you want for yourself is the right thing.

Her own parents lack perfection. They highlight their weaknesses, and for that they seem believable.

Bliss’ father watches his neighbor with slight twinges of jealousy as he plays football with his son and nails banners into his yard. You can feel he is not let down in his own daughters, but rather missing the experience of having a son.

Bliss’ mother, a has-been beauty queen, pushes Bliss almost relentlessly into the life of a ’50s housewife. Roller derby just happens to be nowhere close to what she has in mind for her daughter.

Apart from convincing her own parents that roller derby is her passion, Bliss comes against an unconventional adversary, Iron Mavin (played wonderfully by Juliette Lewis), who does everything in her power to end Bliss’ budding roller derby run.

VERDICT: Drew Barrymore extends her already-impressive résumé with her directorial debut, a true must-see movie. It is not only an entertaining comedy but an overall moving film.