{"id":6287,"date":"2010-02-13T12:37:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-13T17:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/?p=6287"},"modified":"2022-10-23T11:42:14","modified_gmt":"2022-10-23T15:42:14","slug":"drew-barrymores-whip-it-skates-around-conflict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/drew-barrymores-whip-it-skates-around-conflict\/","title":{"rendered":"Drew Barrymore&#8217;s Whip It skates around conflict"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Writer Shauna Cross and director Drew Barrymore&#8217;s <em>Whip It<\/em> is frustratingly averse to dramatic conflict. Rather than finding resolutions, or allowing issues to evolve in interesting ways, it skates around nearly every incident:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Bliss&#8217; (Elliot Page) love interest at first appears to have cheated on her, but in fact didn&#8217;t, so the worst you can say about him is that he&#8217;s not a phone person.<\/li><li>Bliss&#8217; mother (Marcia Gay Harden) fairly easily comes around to supporting her.<\/li><li>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.<\/li><li>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?<\/li><li>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&#8217;t she do both?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Bliss&#8217; charismatic friend Pash (Alia Shawkat) makes her seem rather passive in comparison. She&#8217;s more defined by what she doesn&#8217;t want to do (be a beauty queen) than what she does (which is\u2026 we don&#8217;t know), and instead she kind of just mopes around. Daniel Clowes&#8217; <em>Ghost World<\/em> features more richly drawn character studies of the aimless slacker teenage years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Writer Shauna Cross and director Drew Barrymore&#8217;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&#8217; (Elliot Page) love interest at first appears to have cheated on her, but in fact didn&#8217;t, so the worst you can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,2],"tags":[1485,2048,1951,888,237,2049,2050],"class_list":["post-6287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-3-stars","category-movies","tag-1485","tag-alia-shawkat","tag-drew-barrymore","tag-elliot-page","tag-marcia-gay-harden","tag-shauna-cross","tag-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/whip-it.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa9lhB-1Dp","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":751,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/into-the-wild\/","url_meta":{"origin":6287,"position":0},"title":"Sean Penn and Emile Hirsch go Into the Wild","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"April 12, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Like many young men cursed with a privileged life of education and time to think for themselves, Chris McCandless (Emile Hirsch) wanted only a vaguely defined \"truth\" and to not have to rely on anyone. Synthesizing his reading of Henry Thoreau and Jack London, he imagined for himself a life\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;4 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"4 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/4-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Into the Wild","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/into-the-wild-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/into-the-wild-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/into-the-wild-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/into-the-wild-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/into-the-wild-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1229,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/mist\/","url_meta":{"origin":6287,"position":1},"title":"There&#8217;s Something in the Mist: Frank Darabont&#8217;s The Mist","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"October 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Has writer\/director Frank Darabont been weighed down by the heavy legacy of his first feature film? The Shawshank Redemption remains one of the most popular movies ever made, if not quite (yet?) accepted into the canon. The Mist, after The Green Mile, is Darabont's third Stephen King adaptation, so far\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;2 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"2 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/2-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Mist","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/the-mist.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/the-mist.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/the-mist.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/the-mist.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/the-mist.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":309,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/coachella\/","url_meta":{"origin":6287,"position":2},"title":"Drew Thomas&#8217; 2006 documentary Coachella","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"July 7, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't normally review music DVDs on this blog, but since Drew Thomas' 2006 documentary Coachella received a theatrical release in Europe, I thought it deserved a mention. It's a rare concert film that is as interested in the concertgoers and the character of the event itself as in simply\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;3 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Coachella","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/coachella-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/coachella-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/coachella-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/coachella-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/coachella-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3283,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/taking-woodstock\/","url_meta":{"origin":6287,"position":3},"title":"Ang Lee&#8217;s Tall Tale: Taking Woodstock","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"December 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock is based on Elliot Tiber's memoir Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life, that purports to be the untold story of how the Woodstock music festival came to Bethel, NY, in August 1969. Tiber claims he was the crucial go-between\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;3 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/taking-woodstock.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/taking-woodstock.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/taking-woodstock.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/taking-woodstock.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/taking-woodstock.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5726,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/never-been-kissed-problematic-or-wacky-misunderstanding\/","url_meta":{"origin":6287,"position":4},"title":"Never Been Kissed: a wacky misunderstanding, or should somebody call the police?","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"February 18, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"?? Without thinking about it too much, the basic premise of Raja Gosnell's Never Been Kissed sounds perfectly fine: an adorkable young adult gets a high school do-over. What could go wrong? And indeed, roughly the first half of Never Been Kissed is likable, powered almost entirely by Drew Barrymore's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;2 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"2 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/2-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Drew Barrymore and Michael Vartan in Never Been Kissed","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/never-been-kissed.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/never-been-kissed.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/never-been-kissed.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/never-been-kissed.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/never-been-kissed.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":365,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/miami-vice-2006\/","url_meta":{"origin":6287,"position":5},"title":"Michael Mann&#8217;s Miami Vice movie is stylish but slight","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"July 30, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Miami Vice is decidedly slight on character and depth, which is not surprising considering the source material. It is quite so, however, considering writer\/director Michael Mann's track record once leaving the iconic 80s tv show behind. The deep characterization in all his crime dramas ranging from Thief through Collateral elevate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;2 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"2 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/2-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Miami Vice","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/miami-vice-movie-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/miami-vice-movie-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/miami-vice-movie-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/miami-vice-movie-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/miami-vice-movie-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6287"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6798,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6287\/revisions\/6798"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}