Thanks, Bryant. I thought you'd seen it already, otherwise I would've made sure this wasn't a surprise to you!
Apropos of nothing, I'd like to put in a good word for WHIP IT, since nobody got a chance to review it for the mothersite and since it seems to be getting middling reviews elsewhere. It's not a masterpiece, and it's pretty predictable, but it's sensitively made and, regardless of what you may think sight-unseen about Drew Barrymore directing a feature, it's got a pedigree. (She had Wes Anderson's DP and Paul Thomas Anderson's editor to cushion any falls.) Juliette Lewis plays something other than a retarded woman-child for a change, and the Austin milieu feels really authentic. (At one point, Ellen Page and her credibly-drawn musician love interest attend a screening of THE JERK at the Drafthouse.) I think the middle section of the movie gets choked a little bit by the relentless, iPod shuffle soundtrack, but confess I got the tingles during a scene where shirts are exchanged to Radiohead's "No Surprises" after a night of lovemaking--a lovely sequence in and of itself that's photographed mostly underwater. It's probably a clichee, but it's done well. A lot of the movie is like that: refining the familiar.
In short, WHIP IT's gentility--all that body-checking not withstanding--disarmed me in a way that I feel the picture's good outweighs its bad. I want to call it a crowd-pleaser, but that implies something much more obnoxious than the film I saw, during which the audience (composed mostly of mother/daughter pairings) was as quiet as church mice. But they left the theatre beaming, and so did I.
I have promised myself that unless it sucked absolutely, I would see Whip It at least twice in the cinema, if only to make a point for movies with female protagonists that are neither "The Proposal" nor "Sex in the City". Glad to hear I'll be able to spend some money.
4 comments:
Hey man, nice cover. It took me a minute to figure it out, but that's totally swank.
Thanks, Bryant. I thought you'd seen it already, otherwise I would've made sure this wasn't a surprise to you!
Apropos of nothing, I'd like to put in a good word for WHIP IT, since nobody got a chance to review it for the mothersite and since it seems to be getting middling reviews elsewhere. It's not a masterpiece, and it's pretty predictable, but it's sensitively made and, regardless of what you may think sight-unseen about Drew Barrymore directing a feature, it's got a pedigree. (She had Wes Anderson's DP and Paul Thomas Anderson's editor to cushion any falls.) Juliette Lewis plays something other than a retarded woman-child for a change, and the Austin milieu feels really authentic. (At one point, Ellen Page and her credibly-drawn musician love interest attend a screening of THE JERK at the Drafthouse.) I think the middle section of the movie gets choked a little bit by the relentless, iPod shuffle soundtrack, but confess I got the tingles during a scene where shirts are exchanged to Radiohead's "No Surprises" after a night of lovemaking--a lovely sequence in and of itself that's photographed mostly underwater. It's probably a clichee, but it's done well. A lot of the movie is like that: refining the familiar.
In short, WHIP IT's gentility--all that body-checking not withstanding--disarmed me in a way that I feel the picture's good outweighs its bad. I want to call it a crowd-pleaser, but that implies something much more obnoxious than the film I saw, during which the audience (composed mostly of mother/daughter pairings) was as quiet as church mice. But they left the theatre beaming, and so did I.
I have promised myself that unless it sucked absolutely, I would see Whip It at least twice in the cinema, if only to make a point for movies with female protagonists that are neither "The Proposal" nor "Sex in the City". Glad to hear I'll be able to spend some money.
Thank yyou for sharing
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