Whip It

courtesy of http://www.filmofilia.com

When I sat down to watch Whip It, I was skeptical of whether or not I’d enjoy it.  I had previously attempted the Ellen Page-fronted Juno years ago hated – no loathed it.  I fit the demographic to a ‘T’: music and film nerd of epic proportions, feminist, sassy and sarcastic – that’s me through and through.  The problem I had with Juno lay completely in the writing.

Diablo Cody’s personal background intrigued me.  A “riot grrl”, if you will; stripper-turned-screenwriter – I was definitely interested in what she had to say.  It turns out that she didn’t have much to say that was of interest to me.  The dialogue was painfully forced and juvenile, the band dropping was way over-done, and the mise-en-scene was so faux kitschy that my brain rejected the notion of even trying to take it all in.  A person can only take so much hipster-branded irony, and Juno proved to not know where to stop.  But what does all of this have to do with Whip It?

Admittedly unjust in my initial reaction upon seeing the trailer for the film, I rejected the idea because it looked like Juno tries roller derby.  I expected the same forced dialogue and “look at me, I’m so cool because I know who The Melvins are and have a hamburger phone” attitude that oozed from Juno‘s celluloid.  I was pleasantly surprised to be proven dead wrong.

Whip It tells the story of Bliss Cavendar, a 17 year old Texan whose mother wants her to become a beauty queen.  Bliss goes to pageant after pageant at her mother’s urging, and never wins.  She’s a painfully awkward teen who has one friend and works at the local barbecue joint with her sole friend, Pash, and their manager “Birdman”.  One day, during a shopping trip, Bliss sees a roller derby team advertising their next match.  After much urging, she and Pash manage to sneak to the match, where Bliss’ world is turned upside down.

I found myself interested in Ellen Page’s painfully shy and awkward Bliss Cavendar.  I loved the way she and Brooke Cavendar (Marcia Gay Harden) played off of one another.  Don’t we all know what it’s like for our parent(s) to have one wish/hope/dream for us and for us to want to veer off in the completely opposite direction?  Even greater than the dynamic between Bliss and her mother, Brooke, was her lone friendship with Pash (Alia Shawkat).  It was so nice to see a character completely blossom around her best friend, and without any sort of pressure!  These two girls had a very strong relationship, and you could tell without having them to spell it out.  I also really enjoyed watching the interactions between the derby ladies.  Juliet Lewis really blew her role as ‘Iron Maven’ out of the water.  This truly was the best I’ve ever seen her, and probably the only time I’ve actually enjoyed a character that she’s played.  Kristen Wig’s ‘Maggie Mayhem’ was lovely and subtle; a nice change from the goofball characters she generally plays.  In addition to the characterization, the derby scenes were amazing and so much like every derby match I’ve ever been to.  Let’s face it, watching women kick major ass is never dull.

As with almost every film, there was an awful lot about Whip It that I didn’t like.  To begin, Bliss’ relationship with small time-attempting-to-make-it-big rocker Oliver (Landon Pigg) felt unnecessary.  While I liked the overall portrayal of the relationship, it felt written in solely that we could have an excuse for Bliss and Pash to test their friendship (in the form of a fight, naturally).  As with Juno, I didn’t appreciate Whip It’s band name-dropping and the “irony” (Bliss wearing a Stryker tee).  I felt some scenes were forced, simply as a means to have characters having an excuse to interact, or as an attempt at forced humor (hot tub scene with Jimmy Fallon’s ‘Johnny Rocket’).  I also felt that Drew Barrymore’s ‘Smashley Simpson’ was the most obnoxious and juvenile character, and Eve’s ‘Rosa Sparks’ was merely a token with no real place other than to be the one-liner girl.

Overall, this was a job well-done for first time director Drew Barrymore.  While a good bit of the film felt like filler, there was enough substance and weight that it made the extras okay.  The actors did a fantastic job of playing off one another and the story was solid.  It was truly refreshing to see a film of strong and loving female relationships that didn’t revolve around shopping and men.  Whip It is a fantastic example of the types of films that that women and young girls need to see more of; Alison Bechdel would be proud.

Paranormal Activity

Courtesy of newhorror.wordpress.com

Paranormal Activity is the latest installment into the horror-mockumentary school of film.  It’s received a whole lot of praise and has even been hailed as “the scariest movie of the year”.  It’s even got a neat marketing ploy – release it into about ten theatres at a time, based on the amount of people who click the “Demand It” button on the official site.

Paranormal Activity is about a young couple who move in together and are experiencing some weird/freaky stuff.  Where the film opens is when the boyfriend – Micah – purchases a video camera so as to document the weird happenings, for proof.  Girlfriend, Katie, is not amused.  It turns out, she’s been experiencing hauntings for almost her entire life.

The idea of the film was fantastic, and it was pretty fun.  The only problem is, it wasn’t scary.  At all.  At least, not to me (and about half the theatre).  Though, there was one girl who cried.

This film is fairly similar (in style) to The Blair Witch Project, minus the nausea-inducing shaky cam.  A definite plus, in my book.  However, Micah’s acting was so terrible that it was hard to believe anything that was coming from him.

The other problem with the film is that, after so many “night of terror” shots, it starts to get repetitive and boring.  This is a huge downfall, as it starts to make the film drag and you’re left wondering how much longer you’re going to have to see the same stuff repeated.

The ending of this one was pretty predictable, as well.  I’d be a “liar, liar, pants on fire” if I said that I was even remotely surprised.  I will say, though, that the gag at the end went a little too far in its trying to be super scary.  No one in my theatre was buying it.

All in all, it was an okay effort.

9 Songs

Courtesy of flickr.com

I opted for the more…”family friendly” version of this poster.

The very first time I heard about 9 Songs (when it was released in the British cinema, back in… sometime around 2005), I was intrigued.  Of course, at the time, I didn’t know very much about it, other than it was about an American student and an Englishman who meet at a concert, followed by footage from a number of concerts.

I’m not going to lie, I was mostly excited due to the list of bands from which the footage was provided.

As time went on, I forgot about the film’s existence – having never made it to the theatre to see it – until I saw an episode of Indie Sex which happened to mention it.  There, I learned that it was an “experimental film” done by Michael Winterbottom (of 24 Hour Party People fame) where he would proceed to make a film utilizing the sexualities of two actors.

This information caused me to read more about this film, and see what critics and regular moviegoers (like myself) had to say.  The results were fairly unanimous – trite, plotless, pretentious, pornography.

I had my mind pretty much made up – I would skip this one and figured that the masses were correct.  As such, the film was shoved into the back of my mind, never to be thought of again… until today.

The lovely Netflix mentioned to me that it had newly added 9 Songs to its list of “Instant Watch” movies.  As such, I figured, why not?

The first, pre-opening credits, bits of film were enough to put me off the entire things, but I stuck it out.

The film opens with two different shots of the same airplane, flying over a vast snow covered landscape, all the while a voice-over is occurring.  Close up of the young man in the plane, quick cut to a sex scene, and cue the opening credits.

What a way to start a film.  It got me thinking, “What have I gotten myself into?”

This film tried entirely too hard to be a masterful work of art – with its minimalist sets and lighting, handheld camera, extreme close-ups, and lengthy static shots.  However, what the film majorly lacked was a story, and as a result proved to be very dull and lifeless.

I wondered throughout, who are these two people that are constantly having coitus on my screen? Where did they come from?  How did they meet?  How did this start?  Do they ever have any sort of conversation?

I found myself eagerly awaiting the “9th song” just so that I would know the film was over.

This film was chock full of shot-after-shot-after-shot of sex.  Concert footage (probably taken from concert dvds) with sex interspersed.  Two seconds of dialogue, either following sex, or with sex immediately following.  It seemed as if the entire film took place in a bed.

The times that this couple were actually having a conversation was laughable – with dialogue such as:

“Do you think I look like a boy?”

“Yes, that’s why I like you”

“Boy…” (said while posing in front of a mirror) “Girl…” (also said while posing)

I am inclined to agree with the others – this film was nothing other than Winterbottom attempting to get his rocks off.

This was a major snoozefest, for sure.