Whip It - Let the good times roll (The List)

Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut, Whip It, is the high-octane story of indie-rock misfit Bliss Cavendar (Ellen Page) who escapes small town family life by joining the US roller derby circuit. But does the film get close to capturing the real excitement of the sport? In the spirit of our Glasgow vs Edinburgh issue we’ve asked old rivals (actually firm friends) the Glasgow Irn Bruisers and the Auld Reekie Roller Girls to pass comment. Interviews by Paul Gallagher and Paul Dale.

Irn Bruisers

What did you think of the film?

Lethal Loulou: I think it’s brilliant and I think everybody should go and see it! It’s really feel-good, and shows why roller derby is so awesome; how it lets you put such confidence in yourself. That’s what the whole film’s about, because everyone’s trying to force Bliss into being a beauty pageant queen, and she secretly goes off and plays roller derby and ‘finds herself’ and then has the guts to say ‘this is who I am’.

Coco Pox: If it was a film about a boys’ sport, we’ve all seen that kind of thing before, but this is a women’s sport, where a woman is the hero and the romance stuff takes a back seat. And she doesn’t go off into the sunset; she goes off to the derby!

Poison Delight: It is Hollywood-ised, definitely, but there are some elements that are quite true, like the reasons people get into roller derby, and that feeling you get when you’re with a bunch of girls that you have a lot in common with.

Sarah McMilan: It wasn’t as good as Juno, but it was a step above the generic sports film. I saw the trailer for it the other night and shivered again; every time I hear her say ‘I’m in love with this’ I get goosebumps.

Was it a fair representation of the roller derby scene?

Lethal Loulou: It was really good for showing what it’s like in America. It’s growing in popularity. Hundreds of people support teams and they have special warehouses where they can go and train and play games. We’re starting to get there and hopefully in a couple of years that might be us getting our own warehouse.

Sarah McMilan: The age range of the players in the film is great. You have people like Juliette Lewis and Drew Barrymore who are my age – mid 30s – and that’s very representative. Our team’s ages go up to 43, and that’s the wonderful thing about roller derby, it’s for all women of all shapes and sizes and ages.

Was there anything in particular that you wished it had included?

Sarah McMilan: I think some bits in it were unnecessary. But it’s a Hollywood film, so it’s a good idea to make it look glamorous and exciting and a bit offbeat. We don’t punch people though! Don’t get me wrong, it’s a full-contact sport, but you don’t punch anyone.

Coco Pox: [tongue-in-cheek] That’s for the after-party.

Do you think the actors could survive on a Glasgow track?

Lethal Loulou: Yeah I do. I think they could give us a good run for our money! A lot of the skaters in the film are actually real skaters, so it’s a real representation of the girls who play derby.

Coco Pox: I think that backs up the tag line, ‘Be your own hero.’ It’s not cartoon superheroes, it’s real people, and there they are on-screen. And you can tell the actresses from the real skaters from the thickness of their thighs!

Who would play you in a roller derby movie?

Coco Pox: Sarah would be played by that Gladiator, Jet!

Lethal Loulou: I think it would be hard to find an actress tall enough to play me.

Coco Pox: Maybe Lucy Lawless, from Xena: Warrior Princess?

Poison Delight: I would need to be someone short …

Sarah McMilan: Ellen Page, perhaps?

Poison Delight: Well she can skate already, so yeah!

Coco Pox: Meryl Streep for me, because I’ve got a weird accent and the same nose as her. And she’s about 60, proving you don’t have to be young to play roller derby!


Auld Reekie Roller Girls

What did you think of the film?

Bruise Leigh: To be honest I didn’t like the film. It was a kind of chick flick with roller derby in it, which isn’t really my thing. But apart from that I didn’t think it was very accurate. There was a lot of bitchiness and cattiness in Whip It which is the antithesis of what roller derby is about. This the most open and welcoming group of girls and we have a policy of no bitching, no back-stabbing and that’s totally the way it is.

On the plus side I suppose it didn’t make it glossy; all the outfits were still really shoddy and they got the DIY aspect of the sport right. And the line where one of the characters says ‘I’m in love with this’ rings true.

Was it a fair representation of the roller derby scene?

Candy Savage: If you see it for what it is – an American-made, Hollywood type film – it’s fine. It’s a sort of fun Sunday afternoon film. In the film they play more the derby that was played in the 1970s with a banked track. They could have portrayed it as it’s played now because it’s just as dramatic. I did, however, love Juliette Lewis in the film, she was awesome. The film’s pretty funny and has got some kick-ass girls.

Armalite Angie: I’m a bigger girl and roller derby is one of those sports where bigger girls can be included as long as you are physically able to take part and the film didn’t really reflect players like me. There’s also no upper age limit.

Roller derby is predominantly a female sport but we have committees set up and there is never any internal fighting and there is no discrimination. Girls don’t pick on girls or do any of that kind of stuff that happens in the film. What happens on the track stays on the track. The depiction of hedonism and extra curricular activities in the film is pretty accurate though. We have themed parties and really let our hair down after a tournament.

Was there anything in particular that you wished it had included?

Candy Savage: The real story should have been how we all find our inner roller derby girl. I’m Hannah in real life, but here I’m Candy Savage. I stand differently, sit differently … living out that persona is a big part of the sport. They could have just showed that story. They didn’t have to use the whole beauty pageant storyline. I’m surprised the film has got such a big release. It needed a bit more bite. Barrymore was playing it safe.

Do you think Whip It will raise the profile of the sport?

Armalite Angie: I’m hoping the film is going to make people more aware. I speak to people every day and they have no idea what we do. They think we line skate and play hockey basically. The sport is the same but they play on a banked track and you can go over the top but for us the only way is to go down.

Whip It is on general release from Fri 9 Apr. This article first published in The List magazine.

Interview: Richard Jenkins on The Visitor

Richard Jenkins has had a fantastic 12 months, earning the biggest recognition so far in a long career for his great performance in Tom McCarthy’s film The Visitor. In the film he plays Walter Vale, a lonely academic who, through a strange set of coincidences, finds himself sharing his apartment with two Sudanese refugees. Fantastically, he’s nominated for Best Male Lead in next weekend’s Academy Awards, and I had a brief chance to talk to him about the role when he was in Scotland for the Edinburgh Film Festival last year:

The Visitor could be seen as a movie about asylum seekers - an ‘issue movie’ - but it’s really about people, isn’t it?
I never saw it as an issue movie, and Tom didn’t either. That’s not what’s interesting, and there’s a lot of movies like that. But if we get involved with someone’s life then we can see the effect something has on their life and that’s what he did so brilliantly with the movie I think. It’s like he put a face on the issue. It’s a relationship movie, and this just happened to be part of it. You do take it with you but it’s not the main thing you take away with you; you go away wondering what happens to these people.

What do you think happens to the characters?
I don’t know. It’s a question we get asked every time and it means that you care about these people, but until they make a sequel, I don’t know! I’ve had people say “I know what happens! He goes to Syria and he brings her… is that what happens?” and I’m like, “I don’t know! The movie ended!” But it’s so great to have people investing in those characters. And then some people say they don’t like the way it ended, but that’s life and that’s the way it happens. If the movie had been given a Hollywood ending I think it would have been much less effective.

Have you kept up playing the djembe since learning for the movie?
No. I played drums when I was young. I played for about five years when I was in Junior high. I quit when I was about 14, I wasn’t very good. But it helped me in this movie!

Walter goes through a lot of change in the course of the movie, but it’s all happening inside. How did you prepare and get confident that your performance could speak louder than words?
We had two weeks of wonderful rehearsal; we talked about the script, and read the script, and changed the script. But the truth is, you don’t really know what I’m thinking, but by the end of the movie you understand this man. Because I was thinking of a million things, and I wasn’t even sure what I was thinking at the time. But what I tried to do was just live this life and trust that an audience would understand what’s going on in this guy, without having everything spelled out for them saying “now I’m happy, now I’m sad” because I wasn’t sure half the time what I was feeling. Conflicted many times!

So it was Tom who said I had to trust the camera and that the audience would understand it. The thing is, people connect with other human beings and it’s a subconscious thing, it’s an emotional connection. We’ve all been in movies where everything is explained to us and we understand it, but it doesn’t mean anything to us. It’s that thing of wondering what’s going to happen next. Who is this guy? Who are these people? What is she really like? For me when I watch a movie that’s what I love, and that’s what you love about the great ones. I just saw Eastern Promises where Viggo Mortensen gives an extraordinary performance. I didn’t know what the hell was going on in his head, but I tell you something, by the end of the movie I understood that guy. I couldn’t take my eyes off him!

Will the great response to The Visitor affect roles that are available to you?
It’s kind of a gradual thing if it does. I’m 61. I don’t know how much of an effect it can have on me, and that’s not for me to speculate on. I try not to think about that because it just hurts your feelings in the end anyway.


I hope that Richard isn’t experiencing too many hurt feelings at the moment, but I think it’s unlikely, given his upcoming work includes a part in Joss Whedon’s latest, Cabin in the Woods, and his Oscar nomination will doubtless bring him to a much wider audience. The Visitor is released on dvd in the UK on 23rd February. I promise this is the last time I’ll go on about it, just make sure you check it out!

Summer Hours, Transsiberian and Encounters at the End of the World

I have a few reviews from the Edinburgh Film Festival published this week on Edinburgh Festivals Magazine's website. Below is some more info and links to the full reviews.

Summer Hours (pictured above) - "Olivier Assayas’ new film could easily be dismissed as “too French” by UK audiences, considering its preoccupation with talking, drinking and generally not doing much. But Summer Hours is a film of considerable depth and maturity, and one that, if anything, actually demands repeat viewings in order to fully appreciate its quality."
Read the full review here
Summer Hours is on selected UK release from 18 July

Transsiberian - "Writer-director Brad Anderson’s last film was the tense and compelling The Machinist (2004), which starred an impossibly gaunt Christian Bale and worked as a nightmarish journey into one man’s troubled mind. For his follow-up he opts for a bigger cast and broader canvas, but the end product is not half as original or effective as could have been expected."
Read the full review here

Encounters at the End of the World - "There is a lot of fun to be had with this film before it reaches its more reflective conclusions, not least when Werner Herzog encounters a lone scientist who spends his life studying Antarctica’s penguin community, and asks him whether he has ever seen evidence of gay relationships amongst the birds. As Herzog is keen to point out, this ain’t March of the Penguins."
Read the full review here

Edinburgh International Film Festival – Top 5

It’s almost two weeks now since Edinburgh’s Film Festival wound up its first year as a June event. By all accounts it was a success, although I must admit that it didn’t feel quite as busy as the organisers are claiming it was, despite what I thought was a really good selection of movies. Yes, there were some disappointments – The Wackness, Stone of Destiny and much-hyped British debut Better Things were the biggest let-downs – but overall I got to see a lot of very good films; in fact, compiling a top 5 has been a little harder than I initially anticipated.

After much internal debate, here’s my pick of the five best films of the Festival, and more importantly, why they make the grade:

1. WALL-E – It may have been the most mainstream movie of the Festival but Pixar’s new film was also the best, representing another step forward for the already impossibly high-standard-setting animation studio. Finding Nemo director Andrew Stanton takes the story of a cute little robot, left on earth for 700 years to clean up after humans have pretty much destroyed the planet and done a runner, and crafts a tale of loneliness, friendship and adventure that is both profoundly moving and bursting with stunning visual creativity. Added to this, WALL-E is a movie in love with the movies, packed with references to classics of the silver screen, with each homage incorporated as a relevant storytelling element, never feeling self-indulgent or unnecessary. It’s a true masterpiece, and my favourite film of the year so far.

2. The Visitor – Much smaller in scale than Pixar’s animation behemoth, this character-focused comedy-drama is equally accomplished in its writing, confirming Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent) as a writer-director of considerable human insight and compassion. Eternal support actor Richard Jenkins is perfect in the lead as Walter Vale, a bored Connecticut University academic whose life takes a turn for the interesting when he discovers a refugee couple living in his New York apartment. After initially throwing them out, Walter has a change of heart and begins an unexpected friendship with the djembe-playing Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and his girlfriend Zainab (Danai Gurira). Things are complicated when Tarek is arrested and threatened with deportation, but while the film does tackle political issues, it is primarily about people, and McCarthy handles the balance of personal and political masterfully. Also featuring a brilliant performance from Hiam Abbass as Tarek’s mother, The Visitor is a true gem, and I would highly recommend seeking it out, as it’s in UK cinemas right now!

3. Man On Wire – The best of an excellent selection of documentaries at the Festival, James Marsh’s film presents a man and a feat that both have to be seen to be believed. The man is Philipe Petit, a French tightrope-walker of singular vision and enthusiasm, and the feat is an almost unbelievable wire-walk that he accomplished in 1974 between the newly-constructed World Trade Center towers. The fact that Petit and a handful of friends managed to break into the towers and successfully set up and carry out the illegal act is jaw-dropping enough, but the way it is retold here clearly conveys the profound emotional impact it had on everyone involved, and the film itself becomes more than just a historical document; it’s a powerfully inspiring piece of cinema.

4. Let The Right One In – This is a low-key Swedish character drama with a difference; it’s also a vampire movie. Almost sluggishly paced in its first hour, director Tomas Alfredson takes his sweet time in building the atmosphere in this story of a bullied 12-year-old who befriends the slightly odd girl next-door, but patience pays off as he uses the very low budget to stunning effect. It’s a film of creeping unease rather than high pitch scares, and concludes with a final set-piece that made me want to stand up and applaud. Apparently that’s exactly what happened at the critics’ screening, which is an event largely unheard of at film festivals. The film doesn’t seem to have UK distribution at the moment, and appears to have already been snapped-up for an English-language remake, but hopefully this original version will find its way to cinemas soon, as it’s really quite special.

5. Summer – Robert Carlyle is an actor that I’ve always found likeable but never amazing, but in Summer he gives, for my money, the best performance of his career. He picked up the Festival’s Best Actor award for his heart-breaking portrayal of Shaun, a man who we meet in a beaten-down state, brought low by the hand life has dealt him. Kenny Glenaan’s film flits back and forward in time to build up a picture of Shaun’s life, and occasionally the story is almost too sad to bear, but Carlyle brings such a recognisable warmth and longing to the character that we can’t help but stay with him. A much-needed note of hope at the conclusion slightly softens the film’s emotional wallop, but overall this is a deeply moving tale of loss and frustration, and Carlyle deserves heaps of praise for his amazing work in it.

So that’s my verdict. Just missing out on inclusion were Shane Meadows’ new one Somers Town, the lovely Amy Adams comedy Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day and an excellent British debut called Dummy, all of which are well worth investigation too. For now though, that’s my Festival experience wrapped up. Roll on London…

Info:
WALL-E (U) is released nationwide on 18 July.
The Visitor (15) is out now in selected cinemas.
Man On Wire (12A) is released nationwide on 1 August.
Let The Right One In and Summer have no scheduled UK release date.