WHIP IT - Blu-ray review

"Whip It" is a little story about Roller Derby that was written by a Roller Derby athlete and directed by Drew Barrymore in her first time at the helm of a film. The story was largely ignored at the box office and debuted poorly in sixth place, but starring Ellen Page and a few other familiar faces, Fox Searchlight hopes the picture will gain some attention in DVD sales and rentals. The story by Shauna Cross is affable enough and with Marcia Gay Harden, Daniel Stern, Juliette Lewis, Jimmy Fallon, Barrymore and Zoe Bell in supporting roles, "Whip It" does perhaps deserve a little attention. Roller Derby is an interesting sporting revival and this film is a love story to the female contact sport.

Ellen Page moves beyond "Juno" to star as Bodine, Texas youth Bliss Cavendar. She is an intelligent and pretty girl who is driven by her controlling mail lady mother Brooke to be a beauty pageant queen. Bliss dies her hair blue and gives a speech about Amelia Earhart to go against her mother early in the film to ruin her chances at winning one pageant. Her father Earl laughs at the notion, but bows to his overbearing wife and does not openly support his daughter. Bliss' younger sister Shania (Eulala Scheel) buys into her mother's hopes that her daughters are beauty queens and relishes dressing up and giving speeches.

Bliss destines to get out of Bodine and wants to be her own person. She works at a barbeque pit with her best friend Pash (Alia Shawkat) and their co-worker Birdman (Carlo Alban). Pash is a straight-A student who will gain her freedom from the small town through college and Birdman is content to be a manager at the diner, but Bliss struggles to find her own identity and her own way. She buys boots at a hemp store, where her mother is none-too-happy to learn that she wasn't looking at vases and during this outing to Austin, Texas Bliss comes across an advertisement for Roller Derby in the Texan city. She and Pash attend the event and there she meets Maggie Mayhem (Kristen Wiig) invites Bliss to tryouts.

Roller Derby is something Bliss quickly realizes she loves and she lies about her age to become part of the Hurl Scouts. The team is coached by Razor (Andrew Wilson) and includes other team members Smashley Simpson (Barrymore), Rosa Sparks (Eve) and Bloody Holly (Zoe Bell). Bliss' size and speed on skates make her an instant sensation and her picture adorns posters for the league and she becomes a bitter rival to the league's superstar, Iron Maven (Juliette Lewis). The sport isn't the only change in Bliss' life as she falls in love with budding musician Oliver (Landon Pigg) and discovers that her father lies to her mother to enjoy the things he loves. Her friendship with Pash begins to strain as well as Bliss has fallen in love with being Babe Ruthless.

"Whip It" tells a good story and I thoroughly enjoyed how the film educated its viewers on the sport of Roller Derby. When oldest Wilson brother Andrew's character introduces Bliss to the sport, the rules are laid out slickly and it was easy to appreciate Roller Derby after the ‘tryout' education was given. Screenwriter Shauna Cross wrote the original novel "Derby Girl" and it is very easy to see that this was a very personal story for Cross and it looks at the sport and the girls behind the physical blows and quad-wheeled roller skates. The movie and the story ask viewers to not judge the Derby girls by their tattoos and vicious elbows, but to appreciate Roller Derby as a sport.

Drew Barrymore has been entertaining audiences for nearly three decades in front of the camera and "Whip It" is the first time she has tried to do so by moving behind the camera. Of course, she has a supporting role in the film as a wild girl who enjoys to party and is content as long as she is losing, but having fun. As an actress, there is no doubt that Barrymore is talented and with "Whip It," she shows she has been paying attention to the filmmaking process as "Whip It" is a nicely shot picture that moves nicely and covers all the bases. There is a good mix of exposition, story and background information. She gets good performances from her ensemble cast and shoots the sport of Roller Derby in a way that shows the speed and excitement that can be culled from the sport.

Ellen Page found strong recognition for playing "Juno," where she starred as a smart-mouthed teenager with her own identity and she builds upon that performance for "Whip It." The young actress is very talented and the demands of roller skating and performing in this film easily make "Whip It" the most demanding performance of her young career. As was the case with "Juno," this is Page's film and it would not have been nearly entertaining had it not been for her presence. She is a petite actress that you would not typically associate as the stereotypical Derby girl, but the message of the film is that a Derby girl could be any girl and not to tie them to stereotypes. Page gives a performance that makes this all quite believable and the message is carried home.

"Whip It" is a good film and Barrymore does well in her first outing as a director. Her own presence in the film is a fairly small role, which is atypical for the actress as she is an A-List leading lady. While her directing is commendable, she benefits from having Page give a good performance and the very good story by Roller Derby athlete Cross. The supporting cast is fun, and I loved the demeanor portrayed by Daniel Stern. His character gets the son he always wanted in the form of a Roller Derby girl and the smile given by Stern as he pounded in a sign with the number 23 on it at the end was priceless. I can easily recommend this film and it makes for a good evenings entertainment for just about everyone.

Video:

Life is certainly better in high definition, but "Whip It" doesn't surpass the standard definition DVD release by leaps and bounds. It's an improvement, but it is marginal. Drew Barrymore and Director of Photography Robert Yeoman chose a wide 2.35:1 aspect ratio for "Whip It" and the disc still looks good, but not great. Colors are good, but stylistically desaturated a smidgeon. Where I felt the Blu-ray suffered was in the softness that seemed to exist throughout the transfer and this didn't allow it to have a strong high definition feeling. The girls wear colorful outfits and socks and the transfer never waivers in any lighting condition. This could be a result of the dark shooting, but even though the film was not crystal clear, it looked sharp. The level of detail of the actresses' tattoos was where I noticed the slight lack of detail. Source materials used were clean and there isn't any major flaws, it's just the image is soft.

Audio:

Audio was slightly improved on the high definition release and "Whip It" features an energetic English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack that comes alive during the Roller Derby matches. Audio comes from each of the six channels with crowd and other derby-based ambience bringing the film to the listener rather nicely. Dialogue is very clear and I can't get over how much the eldest Wilson brother sounds like Owen. The major improvement I noticed was that Jimmy Fallon was far easier to hear. The licensed music assembled by music supervisor Randall Poster is the strongest asset of the release and Dolly Parton's "Jolene" sounded good enough I had to fight the temptation to go buy a CD. "Whip It" isn't the best sounding release in the world, but I found it to be quite good.

Extras:

I was a little disappointed that the Blu-ray release didn't come with a "Hulk" green case, as the pictures for the release hinted it might and the DVD looked dapper in green. The Deleted Scenes and Alternate Opening (16:40). This is a collection of extended, alternate and deleted footage that is put into one continuous feature. A scene where Razor quits and Bliss then must talk her coach into returning is a subplot that was completely removed and shows why it is important to Razor. This footage was actually pretty good and worth watching after you see the film. The addition of the Fox Movie Channel presents Writer's Draft: Shauna Cross of Whip It (3:04) is only available on Blu-ray, but it is an entirely too short interview with Cross. There is also a Whip It Soundtrack Spot promoting the CD release and an included DVD that had a Digital Copy of Whip It for Portable Media Players.

Closing:

Fox isn't showing "Whip It" too much love on Blu-ray. It has about three more minutes of bonus materials when compared to the DVD, but it does have a digital copy included. I'm not sure this makes up for not showcasing the release in the cool green case that came with the DVD. For the film itself, I didn't know what to expect with "Whip It." This was Drew Barrymore's first effort as a director and I think she did a very good job and the relatively tiny Ellen Page does a good job of playing a miniscule Roller Derby athlete who uses her size to her advantage. The film is enjoyable and I found myself happily watching it a second time to review the high definition version of the film. The Blu-ray itself is marginally better in sound and audio when compared to the DVD, but it still an improvement. The features are slightly better. Whether or not it is worth the extra cash and lacking the nifty green case is hard to decide. It's a good film and this is the best version of it.