Writer Shauna Cross and director Drew Barrymore’s Whip It is frustratingly averse to dramatic conflict. Rather than finding resolutions, or allowing issues to evolve in interesting ways, it skates around nearly every incident:
- Bliss’ (Elliot Page) love interest at first appears to have cheated on her, but in fact didn’t, so the worst you can say about him is that he’s not a phone person.
- Bliss’ mother (Marcia Gay Harden) fairly easily comes around to supporting her.
- The obstacle of Bliss being too young to compete is totally defused by a convenient piece of exposition; all she needs is a parental note.
- Despite the inherent physical violence of roller derbies, we never see Bliss act aggressively herself. Was this a choice, to make the character not seem unsympathetic?
- Perhaps I missed something, but it was unclear to me if the beauty pageant and the tournament were on the same date. Aside from the societal pressure to be either a beauty queen or a tomboy, why couldn’t she do both?
Bliss’ charismatic friend Pash (Alia Shawkat) makes her seem rather passive in comparison. She’s more defined by what she doesn’t want to do (be a beauty queen) than what she does (which is… we don’t know), and instead she kind of just mopes around. Daniel Clowes’ Ghost World features more richly drawn character studies of the aimless slacker teenage years.
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