Whip It

Whip It

2-4-10

At nearly every turn Whip It seems to subvert expectations and stomp on cliche's. I expected it to be a kind of girl power / we are the champions over coming adversity type of deal...and well...its not. The girls seem to be into Roller Derby not to prove anything to others but because they don't really know how to do anything else. They are competitive and they want to win but fun seems to be a higher priority. I expected the parents to be these two dimensional formula types that "just don't understand their misfit daughter". Well they are kind of that ...but the characters and their relationship with their daughter comes off much more organic than what is typical for this kind of film. The ultimate defiance of the sports film formula comes in the climax and it is here that Whip It cements its "not another overly sentimental sports film" status. In not doing what so many of these kinds of films tend to do it manages to stand apart and ultimately end up a much much better film.