GRRLS just wanna have fun — and boy, do they as rough ‘n’ ready roller derby players — in “Whip It,” Drew Barrymore’s exuberant and totally winning directing debut.
Showing her Best Actress Oscar nomination for “Juno” was no fluke, Ellen Page is tomboyish perfection as Bliss Cavendar, a suburban Texas high schooler who chafes at the beauty contests in which her mom (Marcia Gay Harden) keeps entering her.
One visit to a roller derby match in Austin, and she’s found a new home.
Bliss, who works at a diner, sneaks into the city to try out for the Hurl Scouts on her Barbie skates, and sure enough she makes the team. Bliss doesn’t bother mentioning she’s only 16.
The Hurl Scouts are an undisciplined bunch — “Slap Shot” is an obvious influence on the film — with Barrymore’s cheerfully oblivious character, who goes by the nom-de-skate Smashley Simpson, being especially prone to injury.
As a director, Barrymore has cast nearly flawlessly, with Juliette Lewis and Kristen Wiig especially good as, respectively, a bad-girl rival and a supportive single-mother teammate to Bliss, who renames herself Babe Ruthless for the matches.
The skating scenes are rousingly staged, with Page performing one especially impressive jump that brought cheers when the film debuted at last month’s Toronto International Film Festival.
As you might expect from Barrymore’s long producing career, “Whip It” is mostly about female bonding and empowerment.
One especially well-rendered subplot explores how Bliss’ newfound interests test her relationship with hometown BFF Pash (Alia Shawkat), who gets busted for underage drinking while waiting for Bliss after a match.
Barrymore admirably resists turning Bliss’ mom into a caricature, which most male directors would have done.
Bliss’ sympathetic if weak-willed dad is played by Daniel Stern, which underlines the resemblance between Shauna Cross’ script (from her novel) and “Breaking Away,” the excellent bicycling movie in which Stern made his debut 30 years ago.
Both movies depict a young person on the cusp of finding his or her identity through sports in ways that seem blessedly free of Hollywood artifice and formula.
Real-life rocker Landon Pigg is just OK in a subplot about Bliss’ bittersweet emo-boy first love, but Andrew Wilson — brother of Owen and Luke — is an absolute hoot as the Hurl Scouts’ long-suffering coach.
Sweet without being sticky and funny without getting silly, “Whip It” introduces Barrymore as a director with a keen eye, a good ear for tone and an inspired touch with actors.