Whip It

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A teenage girl (Ellen Page) discovers roller derby, and against her parents' wishes, she sneaks out to a secret world, where she becomes a celebrity bad ass.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Ellen Page, Marcia Gay Harden, Alia Shawkat, Daniel Stern, Landon Pigg, Kristen Wiig, Drew Barrymore, Juliette Lewis, Andrew Wilson, Eve, Zoe Bell, Jimmy Fallon, Sarah Habel, Eulala Scheel, Carlo Alban, Ari Graynor

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. For such a simplistic movie, I was surprised at how difficult a time I sometimes had following along. On the positive side, there is a potentially interesting mother-daughter conflict, and a lot of cool characters inside of a lot of arbitrary scenes.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: In true sports-comedy form, the best laughs come from the game time announcer.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: That is certainly its goal, as confirmed by the actors who showed up for a Q & A, and told us that director, Drew Barrymore, got emotional and cried regularly while explaining what each scene was about to her actors.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: It wants to be this year's Juno, but it's really not. That said, Drew Barrymore will probably get a few nods in the First Time Director category, wherever those are available, because it's a good way to get her to show up for your ceremony.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Andrew Wilson (the oldest, cutest, and least famous Wilson brother) will finally have a chance to break out in his role as the disrespected coach, possibly even making his way toward the status his sibs have enjoyed since Bottle Rocket. Drew Barrymore has a small but delightfully unusual role. Kristen Wiig continues to deliver lines in her own strange manner, which is always weird at first, but grows on you, and delivers unexpected laughs. And I guess I sort of have to mention Ellen Page, who is cute as a button, but not always at home in character traits that don't involve being a smart aleck. She's supposed to be a Texan pageant girl who goes through a transformation to become a hard core derby girl. And while she's great as the tough bitch she becomes, you never really buy her as the sweet Texan she was supposedly passing as before she began her rebellion.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: You really root for Drew in her first foray into directing, but this movie, and the directing in particular, have got a lot of problems. Several scenes seem to exist purely because they were fun for her to film. One is a food fight, which advances the story in no way whatsoever, but looked like it might have been fun to participate in. And even more jarring, is an extended, underwater love scene in a swimming pool. For no reason and with no prompting, the two teenagers jump in wearing all their clothes (including dress shoes and leather jackets) and then undress underwater-- basically implying that they were planning to take off their clothes all along. So it makes no sense that they would deliberately ruin their best gear. Not even a teenager would be that illogical! Then the underwater seduction leads to an underwater kiss, which I don't have to remind you, isn't even possible for those of us who don't have gills. Furthermore, not being able to breathe is one of the least sexy things I can imagine... It would make a cool music video (which I'm sure it eventually will, since the boy is in a band in the movie, and a singer in real life), but in a movie that's supposed to be logical, this scene reeks of, "Hey, look guys! They gave me an underwater camera! We should use it! Where can we get a pool?"

Q: How is the story/script?

A: A lot of the scenes are energetic and fun, but this movie had some of the worst transitions I have ever seen. I struggled to understand how much time had passed from one scene to the next, and how far along we were in the progress of the sports season or the school year. Often, characters would just suddenly be somewhere new-- like at an indoor swimming pool-- and you didn't really know why or how they'd ended up there. And then there is the dialogue, some of which was so cryptic to me, that I literally had to turn to my friend and ask, "What was that supposed to mean?" Saddest of all being that after the conclusion of the love story, I couldn't be sure if the lovers had just broken up or made up.

Q: Is there anything else worth mentioning about the movie?

A: The music and the roller derby are pretty cool.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/whip-it/32591/trailers

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W.

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: Biopic about a man (Josh Brolin) who becomes president of the United States (George W. Bush) to prove to his father (George H.W. Bush) that he's not a disappointment.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Josh Brolin, James Cromwell, Elizabeth Banks, Richard Dreyfuss, Ellen Burstyn, Thandie Newton, Jesse Bradford, Rob Corddry, Dennis Boutsikaris, Scott Glenn, Michael Gaston, Toby Jones, Stacy Keach, Bruce McGill, Jason Ritter, Marley Shelton, Jeffrey Wright

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. All the facts we already know. What's interesting is getting to see W's emotional state as these incidents unfold, his relationship with his father, and finding out who said and did what within his cabinet... Unfortunately, all those parts of the movie are based on pure speculation, and not to be trusted.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: Not nearly as much as when you watch the real W. trying to speak English.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: Again, not nearly as much as when you watch the real thing.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: The whole thing would be a lot more insightful if it came out 30 years from now.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: In many cases the cast of Saturday Night Live could have done these characters more justice. While they are all reminiscent of the actual people they play, either by their looks or by their speech cadence, there is at least one false thing in each of them which keeps you focused on the actor playing the real person, rather than the real person they're playing. For example Josh Brolin sounds right, but he's much too good looking. Thandie Newton looks like Condoleezza Rice, but her speech sounds as if someone has glued her lips together. And Richard Dreyfuss just smiles way too much to be Dick Cheney.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: As is to be expected, watching this film causes you to learn more about Oliver Stone, and his personal fantasies of what it might be like to be George W. Bush, than it teaches you about what it's actually like to be George W. Bush.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: It would have worked better as a Reality TV show... In fact, I think there was a similar show on TV once. Wasn't it called something like, "The News"? I don't know, who can remember such things.

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The Express

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: The life story of Ernie Davis, the first Black person to win the Heisman Trophy. (And hence, paving the way for OJ.)

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Rob Brown, Dennis Quaid, Darrin Dewett henson, Omar Benson Miller, Nelsan Ellis, Charles S. Dutton, Justin Martin, Justin Jones, Nicole Beharie, Aunjanue Ellis, Saul Rubinek, Geoff Stults

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. It's so hard to make a biopic interesting. How do you build suspense when everyone already knows what's gonna happen? In this movie they try to build conflict around the racism that Ernie Davis and his Black teammates faced-- which much like movies about the Holocaust, always makes for interesting and accessible emotional intensity-- but the movie still suffers from the fact that it's a biopic.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: In honor of Sarah Palin, I'm going to ignore that question and answer a different one... You may have noticed that I'm on a roll with seeing race-themed movie about the mid-20th century. And here's something interesting that I've learned from the experience: A Black man won the Heisman Trophy before Black people had the right to vote. I suppose as a country, we never have quite gotten our priorities straight.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: I'm a sucker for these kinds of movies. It's like with romantic comedies, you know where it's going, but it still makes you teary and shivery inside.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: To give an award to a movie about a guy who gets an award is ridiculous. What would be next? A movie about the movie getting an award? And would we have to give that an award, too? No, we have to stop the self-eating cycle of ridiculousness before it begins.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Dennis Quaid is like a fine wine, he gets more textured and tasty as he ages.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: Football is one of the trickiest things to film because there are tons of guys running around the field at once, they're all dressed the same, and they're all wearing helmets. Gary Fleder does a good job of keep your focus on #44, and shooting tight close-ups inside his helmet, so you can keep an eye on your main character at all times.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: Even though it's a true story, it feels a little like it's been done before. And Remember the Titans did it better. If you like Football-Racism movies, you must rent Remember the Titans immediately.

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