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July 9, 2009
Whip It!
Whip It! is a new movie coming out in October. On the upside: it's about women's roller derby (some photos were just released), it stars Ellen Page, Kristen Wiig, Zoe Bell, Marcia Gay Harden, Eve, and my girlfriend Alia Shawkut, aka Maeby from "Arrested Development".
On the downside: it's directed by Drew Barrymore, and it also stars her. And Juliette Lewis, who I sort of like, but sometimes plays slack-jawed and unstable a little too consistently.
But Juliette Lewis in a helmet and kneepads playing a character called Dinah Might I think I can handle. Plus, Kristen Wiig as Malice in Wonderland has the potential to make up for a million Drew Barrymores, and also decreases the likelihood that Whip It! will be a weak sub-Charlie's Angels ripoff.
Ellen Page stars as a Texas indie-rock loving misfit beauty queen who, according to publicity, "throws in her small-town beauty pageant crown for the rowdy world of roller derby" in nearby Austin. Sounds suspiciously similar to Ellen Page's small-town indie-rock-loving misfit girl named Juno who throws in her carefree wisecracking virginity for the emotionally murky and complicated world of pregnancy and adoption.
But there is no room for hyper-stylized sarcasm in roller derby! Young adult novelist Shauna Cross wrote the screenplay based on her own novel Derby Girl, so hopefully the dialogue in Whip It! will be a little easier to take.
Plus, just look at Kristen Wiig's eye makeup in that shot. Awesome.
Here are some more photos.
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Comments
Yes, good point. Drew Barrymore deserves our gratitude for making Donnie Darko happen, but she is still barely watchable as an actress.
I would prefer that she stay behind the camera/desk/promotional pom-poms and stop playing the same cute as a button, allegedly quirky but actually insane character she seems to play in every movie she's in.
Or she could just go back to doing more roles like Poison Ivy. I'd be happy either way.
Posted by: amy at July 14, 2009 9:38 AM
I liked her in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, though.
Posted by: That Fuzzy Bastarrd at July 14, 2009 3:26 PM
Hey, no knocking Barrymore! Sure, Charlie's Angels is nothing special (though way better than it could have been), but let's remember that she produced, got funding for, and generally championed the hell out of Donnie Darko, for which she gets decades of karmic indulgence in my book.
Posted by: That Fuzzy Bastarrd at July 12, 2009 11:38 PM