AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Brainsbell The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Wuchak Released in 2009, "Whip It" was Drew Barrymore's first and (so far) only full-length film in the director's chair. Drew also co-stars, but she's a side character and non-essential to the plot.The story revolves around 17 year-old Bliss Cavendar (Ellen Page), her parents (Daniel Stern & Marcia Gay Harden) and her best friend, Pash (Alia Shawkat). Bliss is involved in the world of beauty pageants due to her mother's obsession, but becomes fascinated by a group of roller derby girls while visiting nearby Austin, TX. She decides to try-out for the the Hurl Scouts."Whip It" starts out slow and only mildly interesting but it ultimately won me over. This is basically a coming-of-age drama using the roller derby as a backdrop and stage. Since Ellen Page takes center focus, and does a great job, "Whip It" should appeal to fans of Page. I'm not a fan; I can take her or leave her. Thankfully, there's enough good here to draw in other folks.I especially like the roller derby girls and their camaraderie & competition. The girls include Juliette Lewis, Kristen Wiig, Eve, Zoe Bell, Ari Graynor, Eli Bleiler and Sydney Bennett. What I love about these women is that they have womanly curves and aren't walking sticks with big breasts. Take, for instance, the so-called Manson Sisters, played by Kristen Adolfi & Rachel Piplica; both are just jaw-droppingly gorgeous throughout the film and worth the price of admission -- stunning examples of womanhood.There's a subplot about Bliss falling for a guy in a rock band (Landon Pigg) and there are other characters, like the coach, the derby announcer and the Hispanic manager of the restaurant Bliss & Pash work at (Andrew Wilson, Jimmy Fallon and Carlo Alban respectively), but this is mainly about Bliss, her family, Pash and the derby girls.FINAL SAY: The drama in this coming-of-age flick is a mixed bag; I found the love story kind of tedious but enjoyed Pash and the family dynamics of the Cavendar household. The best part, of course, is the derby action and the ravishing derby babes in all their glory.The film runs 111 minutes and was mostly filmed in Michigan with some shots of Austin, TX.GRADE: B

Matthew McNaughton For every sport there's surely a movie, and that's pretty cool. This movie has the typical "child wants to do something that parents don't approve of" plot so I can't really say it's anything new, but it is well-made and has a good cast. Ellen Page is the apex of faux high school actresses, but she gives up here "Juno" snark for actual passion (which is quite ironic as Alia Shawkat's character is named "Pash"). The roller derby is fun to watch, especially with Jimmy Fallon as the announcer. I was kinda ticked to see another movie about beauty pageants, but oh well. Marcia Gay Harden was very good as a mother who wants her kids to be like she was, but I just didn't feel any love between her and Page. Overall, it's an interesting movie but I wouldn't really want to watch it again.

runamokprods Likable" could be seen as a lukewarm compliment for a film. "Cute" could even be a backhanded pit-down. But this film is likable and cute in a very good way. The story of an off-beat 17 year old, well played by Ellen Page, finding herself by secretly joining the roller derby in Austin, Texas may be clichéd on the surface, but the lovely character detail and successfully offbeat casting make the film a quirky, likable winner. Not a great film, nor an "important" one, but one I enjoyed and was never bored by. And at a time where most Hollywood "entertainment" centers around blowing stuff up, its nice to see a mainstream film with rich characters and a big heart.

freemantle_uk Ever since childhood Drew Barrymore has been seen as one of the wild children of Hollywood and struggled to find her right calling. She has been in some good films like Donnie Darko but with Whip It she has shown she is a very capable director. So much so Barrymore has been linked to the Twilight series and already done a really good music video with Chloe Mortez.Bliss Cavendar (Ellen Page) is a Texan 17-year-old who is unhappy with her life: her mum (Marcia Gay Harden) has been forcing her to enter into beauty pageants and all she want to do is escape her small town life. She gets an opportunity when in Austin she stills some roller derby girls and she tries out for a team in the local league. Bliss discovers she is a fast roller skater and with her abilities the worst team in the league start to win. But along the way Bliss falls for a local musician, Oliver (Landon Pigg), forms a friendship with her captain Maggie Mayhem (Kristen Wigg), forms a rivalry with the star power of a rival team, Iron Maven (Juliette Lewis) and has to hid her new activity from her parents.Whip It is both a sports film and a coming-of-age story and Barrymore and her writer Shauna Cross was able to balance both elements perfect. Tone and style wise it was very much like Juno (and not just because Ellen Page is starring in it). The dialogue is funny but unlike Juno it is more grounded and realistic and combined with the performances of the cast it was all very natural. The cinematography and the music was also very much like Juno, the music being a mix of old indie and rock and fitting to the setting. Barrymore also delivers some real strong set pieces, using hand-held cameras during the roller derby to follow the action and showing an underwater romantic scene. Barrymore was able to mix the comedy and drama to great effect, being funny with dialogue and physical humour whilst allowing Bliss to grow from an unhappy girl to a self-confidence young woman who finds her scene of belonging in the world.I am personally not a fan of Page, but I think in Whip It she delivers her best performance so far. Whilst I question her being a beauty queen because I believe Page has a more of a girl next door look about her; but her character was more likable then in Juno, someone who more believable then the cocky, sarcastic creature in that other film. Barrymore forms a strong female cast, Wiig plays a very straight role as a mentor to Bliss and Lewis is a typical bully, picking on someone she thinks is weaker then her. Harden starts of as a typical pushy parent but she too also grows and is given more depth then we usually see. Alia Shawkat plays a loyal friend really well and her friendship with Page was a believable typical teenage friendship. Drew Barrymore also has a small role, a character who is either hurting people or getting hurt herself: it was good that she avoided the self-indulgence of giving herself the mentor role. Out of the male members of the cast Andrew Wilson was very funny as the coach of the team and Daniel Stern is a typical supportive dad. For a man who has not acted before Pigg was also a very competent performer.One little bit of nicpicking I have is for a film that is set in Texas most of the cast talk in normal American accents, not Texan actresses. If they were going to speak in their normal voices why not set the film in another state like Kansas, Colorado or Arizona.The way Whip It plays out it feels very believable, a story that could actually happen. It was a natural little film.