There is a great canon of sports movies that haven’t been expanded very much in the past few years, or at least not many heavy hitters in the genre that follow the tried and true formula of rag-tag teams and training montages:The Mighty Ducks,Rocky,Remember The Titans. The latest contributions that seem to encapsulate that uplifting spirit that many associate with the genre are television shows such asTed LassoandA League Of Their Own. While team sports seem to fit long-form television much better, and while perhaps the perspective of the sporting world has shifted in the public eye, many of us go back to these classic films if in need of some motivation or even belonging.
The diverse range of athletic events there are in the world allows for so many narratives to be told, and while they may all be just different flavors of the same formula,so are music biopics, and that doesn’t stop their success.There are so many contestants in the conversation for the greatest sports movies of all time, but one that certainly should be talked about way more is the 2009 roller derby film,Whip It.
Drew Barrymore’s Directing Style Is Fun and Bursting With Female Empowerment
Directed byDrew Barrymoreand written byShauna Cross,formerly Maggie Mayhem of Los Angeles Roller Derby and the writer of the original novel, this is an underrated gem with a lot of impact. The film follows Bliss (Elliot Page), a small-town Texan teenager whose mother (Marcia Gay Harden) is pushing her to be a pageant queen. Unable to fit in and dissatisfied with her lot, she finds herself a part of a rag-tag roller derby team in Austin, going behind her parents' backs to become a star jammer for the Hurl Scouts. This film has all the best ingredients for both a great sports movie and a coming-of-age classic, high onthe list of female sports filmswithI, Tonya,andBend It Like Beckham-and this is definitely attributed to Barrymore’s direction.
This is Barrymore’s directorial debut, and it’s a real shame that it’s her only director credit. The best way to describe her directing style and mode of storytelling is unashamedly fun. Just a low-stakes good time, you feel as if you’re friends with everyone on the screen, and most importantly, it radiates with positive femininity. To be expected from one of Charlie’s Angels, this story is one of feminine empowerment and the discovery of one’s true potential. As much as sports movies, including this one, follow a certain pattern,Whip Itdoes a lot to avoid the more toxic of clichés. Barrymore strived to “avoid her story’s tidier prospects, to make things ‘more raw and open-ended.'” when looking at the script with Cross, and they succeeded here. Both in Bliss’ character journey and her relationships with family, friends, and rivals alike.
There’s always a worry when making a film about women in any kind of competition with each other that they’ll all be toxic and catty toward one another, like a 2000s reality show, incapable of mutual respect. Barrymore breaks down all preconceptions about mother-daughter relationships and female-majority spaces. While there are rivalries and resentments in competition, there are no inclinations to play dirty, the romantic subplot does not end happily ever after, and the relationship between Bliss and her mother is not entirely cut-and-dry. This is why Barrymore was attracted toDerby Girl, the original novel,and fell in love with the sport of roller derby. Little did she know that her affair with this sport and the making of this film would not only be beloved but incredibly influential.
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Whip It And The Roller Derby Community
I have been at least a part of the roller derby community for coming on five years now. I’ve joined two sensational teams in my career, refereeing, officiating, and doing color commentary around the state and country I live in. I’m writing this article in my team shirt right now! I can say with some level of authority thatWhip Itis not the most accurate film about roller derby. It takes months or even years of practice to get on the track competitively, and there are way too many elbows being thrown for my referee brain to handle. If you want accuracy from your roller derby content, watch the 2020 French TV seriesDerby Girl. But withWhip It, it doesn’t really matter how accurate the sport itself is, because the comradery is.
The backstory for a lot of fledgling skaters involves watching this movie and getting inspired, and it’s easy to see why. There’s a punk-rock performance to the whole thing, though my own experience was certainly less flamboyant aesthetically, and more importantly, the bonds formed within your team can be stronger than anything. This movie has so many positive female relationships, even the ones that aren’t perfect are far from anything abusive, choosing instead to go for nuance and perspective rather than moral absolutes.
Roller derby is still a very female space, but it’s also non-binary, and an LGBTQ+ positive space as well, with my only real complaint about the movie being that it’s not represented nearly enough, with its 2009 release. It’s a space that champions diversity and contagious fun as everyone works to uplift each other, and that foundation of support, even in competition with one another, is the most accurate representation inWhip It. Despite the technical inaccuracies, the personal aspect is what attracted people. This movie got a lot of freshies (beginner skaters) to try a new hobby, join a new team, get active, and grow as people, and you have to commend the movie for that.
In her February 2010 interview with Oprah, Barrymore expressed intentions to direct another film, and I pray that this ambition didn’t expire. If the right story finds her, I’ll be front of the line for tickets becauseWhip Itshowed an incredible amount of promise for a first effort. A movie doesn’t have to be artful to have depth in its story and characters, and just because something is predictable doesn’t immediately diminish its quality. This movie is infectious in its pure joy of women and of roller derby, and if Barrymore could inject more of that joy into different narratives, the film industry would be all the better for it.
