Had the opportunity to see a sneak preview of “Whip-It” today:

This is Drew Barrymore’s debut as a director- and she did not disappoint.  The movie is fun to watch and enjoyable on multiple levels.

I have always wondered what the actual rules of roller derby are-  apparently there is a position called a “pivot” that is supposed to have a striped helmet cover (the movie only had the jammers wearing the star covers).  Basically you have a giant moving pack with two jammers (one from each team) behind it.  The jammers must attempt to pass the pack in order to score points.  (The aforementioned pivots are simply the last line of defense for the pack.)

All too often movies these days annoy me with awful camera work designed to do one of two things:

1. Make up for weak action shots

or

2. Induce feelings/moods that the director was to inept to create in any other way

I’m happy to say that Drew didn’t fall prey to this- the actual derby scenes were entertaining, and craptastic camerawork was not used as a cheap ploy to make the matches seem more action-packed.

Will see this movie a second time.  Highly recommended.