The Man With A Plan

Whip It! proved to be an excellent Sunday night movie, even if it did disprove my rule on chick flicks.

I’d been telling my girlfriend yesterday that there was a simple rule for the chick flick (for which I do not claim credit – I heard it on Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo’s radio show). It’s something like you count the number of male characters, you look at whether those men have a conversation together during the film and whether indeed they have any significant part – if all these counts are low, it’s pretty much a chick flick. Except this wasn’t.

Whip It! is the 2009 directorial debut film of Drew Barrymore. Starring Ellen Page it is about a small town beauty queen who, much to the disgust of her ex-cheerleader mother, discovers the sport of roller-derby and reinvents herself as Babe Ruthless a member of the league’s worst performing (but best supported, with most heart etc.) team, the Hurl Scouts.

The film is based on the book Whip It! by former roller-derby skater, Shauna Cross (AKA Maggie Mayhem). You can see why the book got picked up. Virtually unknown in Europe (although I was interested to see that there is a small London league) this is a brutal all-girl sport which is like track cycling, on skates, with added violence. All the skaters start together with the two at the rear gaining points for passing opponents and winning a race around one circuit. Except, if the film is to be believed, the opposing team can do pretty much anything to stop them getting around the track. It looks like a fabulous spectator sport.

Whip It! is a pretty standard coming of age film – finding passion, lying to parents, romantic interest, kooky friends – but the script was pretty good and there was enough interest in the sport of roller-derby to make it extremely watchable. There is also a great cast. Ellen Page was supported by Drew Barrymore, Juliette Lewis and rapper Eve. I’m a huge Ellen page fan, but here she might actually have been the slight weak spot – I found her believable as a roller-derby skater, but not as a potential beauty queen.

Above all this makes a good Sunday night movie because:

1. It doesn’t require much thought

2. It’s interesting without being likely to offend anyone

3. There is a good cast…

4….who are clearly having fun making the movie…

5. ….leading to a happy ending both for the characters and the audience.

So, in summary, I’ll see you at the next London roller-derby meet!

I watched the King’s Speech tonight, the transformation of plain old Bertie Wooster, bullied and scared prince, into King George VI.

Its interest for me lay not just in the excellent performances from all the cast, the perfectly pared down direction and in finding out the Cadfael eventually became Archbishop of Canterbury. There is also a voyeuristic quality because gradually, through film and television, audiences are able to understand the motivations and personalities of the British Monarchy, perhaps the last great private institution (after all Spooks and Danme Stella Rimington’s ‘fiction’ came before The Queen).

Whilst entertaining, there is an interesting question about whether it is good for the public to have such access. Not so long ago people believed monarchs to be imbued with power by divine right. I’m not arguing for a second that was healthy. But nor perhaps is a tabloid culture where every facet of life is lain bare. I often ask friends who routinely drink champagne cocktails what they drink on special occasions (“pink champagne” by the way is neither a clever, nor witty answer). I do think some things are better either drunk in moderation, or retaining an element of mystery.

That said, this portrait of the King was very affectionate. It shows King George VI to be a man of great courage with a family who he loved and who loved him back. But it also shows the other royals as bullying (King George V) and fatuous (King Edward). We know of course they are only human and far from perfect (Prince Harry’s choices of fancy dress costume are a case in point), but I think also that the British monarchy is a great tradition and that we as a people still want great leaders with an air of perfection about them. I think the clamour to have William rather than his father be the next in line to the throne is an example of that.

I’m certainly not suggesting you avoid the film. Indeed, it is brilliant, go watch it. But each media representation chips away at not just the individual but the institution. Many will welcome that, others will not.