OPENS: Friday 10/2

Drew Barrymore scores as the director of this coming-of-age chick flick about a small-town Texan named Bliss (Juno’s Ellen Page) who’s torn between two worlds. She wants to please her mother (Marcia Gay Harden) by competing in local beauty pageants, yet she is also drawn to a newfound crazy love: the roller derby league in nearby Austin.

While the sports film could have used a more experienced action filmmaker for the skating sequences, Whip It rolls along joyfully on Page’s charm and accessibility, a script that expresses Barrymore’s funky big-heartedness and a supporting cast led by Kristen Wiig, Jimmy Fallon, Eve and Juliette Lewis as arch derby rival Iron Maven. The touching scenes between Bliss and her mom, who channeled all her ambitions into her eldest daughter, give both actresses a chance to shine.

-- THELMDA ADAMS

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