Old and new Drew

I watched Firestarter about a month ago and Whip It on Friday night and just thought what an interesting journey for Miss Barrymore.
I'd read Firestarter a while ago but had never seen the movie, I'd enjoyed the book and read it a few times so knew the movie would not match up to what was running in my head.
Basic plot line: Andy McGee participated in a scientific study for cash while he was in university, while there he met Vicky Tomlinson who he later married and had one child Charlene (Charlie) who is played by Barrymore.
The study gave the Vicky mild telekinetic powers and in Andy a substantial mind power which lets him 'push' others actions. Their daughter Charlie has even more powerful abilities, namely the power to create fires.

The government who commissioned the study has been keeping an eye on the couple ever since their university days and are obviously very interested in their abilities, particularly in Charlie. The movie has them basically on the run for the first third of the film from the government agency known as the The Shop, after they killed Vicky and captured Charlie. Andy rescues Charlie using his ability but after a short reprieve they are caught again. They set Charlie and Andy up in separate parts of the Shop and dope Andy up all the time and eventually plan to kill him.
They make Charlie perform all sorts of experiments and plan on using her as some kind of weapon. Charlie's ties to her father are too strong though, and Andy's to her. He fools the doctors into thinking he is taking his medication but is secretly practising his pushing ability. He manages to get a meeting with Charlie and he creates an escape plan.
Unfortunately he hadn't counted on Rainbird, a sniper posing as an orderly in Charlie's chambers to have formed a bond with Charlie. They have a showdown and Andy dies and then Charlie kills Rainbird.
She then goes on a fire spree killing a lot of employees working at the Shop in a rage fuelled by the death of her father. She escapes and goes to an elderly couple who helped Charlie and her dad while they were on the run, and then they help her tell her story to a newspaper.

As with most Stephen King adaptations, when they try and use the similar dialogue from the novel it comes across as laboured and not true to life. While it reads fine on the page, I felt some of Andy's dialogue particularly did not translate well to film. Barrymore does an okay job, she was only 9 at the time and just had to look stressed and whiny a lot of the time which most kids can do!


Now Whip it. I really wanted to see this at the cinema but never got round to it and just watched it on Saturday night. Have to say I was a little disappointed overall, but might have been due to my high expectations.
Ellen Page plays Bliss (what is with the funky hipster names, can someone please call their child Sarah?) whose mother keeps pushing her into beauty pageants she is not interested in. There is some back story with her now being an outsider at her high school, but it isn't fully developed and you feel there could have been a more interesting story there.
A chance sighting of some roller derby girls prompts Bliss and her friend Pash (what the hell is this short for?) played by the delightful Alia Shawkat, to check this event out. Check this out for info on roller derby, I cannot be bothered going into the rules.
Bliss decides to try out for the next intake of roller derby, hiding the fact from her old fashioned mother. She actually gets in and the team gets into the grand final or whatever Americans would call it! Along the way, Bliss forgets about her friend Pash, is lying to her parents, makes some new friends in her roller derby team (including Barrymore who also directed) and scores a (lame) love interest.


I found Drew's character to be unnecessary, she is basically playing a dopey, violent roller girl with lots of colours in her hair (roller derby name: Smashley Simpson). For a maiden directing voyage she didn't do too badly but I think she just wanted to be in the movie and have fun with all the girls, knocking people over etc that she lost sight that maybe the character wasn't necessary. Maybe others thought she added some more comedy to the proceedings but I thought Bliss and Pash's natural friendship had more funny lines.

Drew's career has had a progression from troubled child/teen actor to producer (Whip It, Fever Pitch, Charlie's Angels 1 and 2 and Donnie Darko) and now director and she comes across as likable in my opinion: "I know certain actors are total screwed up on drugs, yet it gets covered up. Why wasn't I excused for 'exhaustion' or the 'flu'?"

Oh and happy 50th post to me! My first post was on the 29th November which makes my blog a Sagittarius. As well as being the birthday of my fabulous aunt it is also the birthday of Louisa May Alcott, C.S. Lewis and Garry Shandling.