Battle of the Netflix Stars #10

Bout #10: Battle of the Films in Which Drew Barrymore Frequently Laughs in an Annoyingly Loud Manner

Movie:	Going the Distance	Whip It
Year:	2010	2009
Director:	Nanette Burstein	Drew Barrymore
Star Power:	Drew Barrymore, Justin Long, Christina Applegate, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis and Ron Livingston.	Drew Barrymore, Ellen Page, Marcia Gay Harden, Daniel Stern, Juliette Lewis, Jimmy Fallon and Kristin Wiig.
Plot:	New York commitment-phobe Garrett meets Erin, an aspiring writer who is moving back to San Francisco in six weeks. The two try to keep things light but end up falling in love. Erin and Garrett look for work in each others' cities to no avail and try to keep their relationship alive while living on opposite ends of the country.	Shy high-schooler Bliss has been pushed into beauty pageant life by her failed pageant queen mother. Desperate to escape her small Texas town, she discovers that an Austin roller derby league is holding try-outs. She makes the team, new friends and snags a boyfriend, but wonders if she can continue lying to her parents about her whereabouts and her teammates about her age.
Pros:	Charlie Day is hilarious as always	Great performances; fantastic soundtrack; roller derby KICKS ASS
Cons:	Justin Long's annoying face; Drew Barrymore's cackling; too much hipster bullshit; a lot of crudeness for crudeness' sake and not enough genuinely funny moments	A tiny bit of hipster bullshit; took me about 15 minutes to get over how fat Daniel Stern got
My Thoughts:	I was really looking forward to seeing this movie, mainly for the presence of Charlie Day. While Charlie didn't disappoint (as a cleaner, more literate version of his Sunny character, he stole every scene he was in), the movie did. Considering I don't like Justin Long to begin with, you might think the odds were stacked against this film, but I found him innocuous enough in Dodgeball and a few other movies. So I think he's capable of rising to the occasion in a good flick, which this wasn't. It had some funny moments, mostly thanks to Charlie and Jason Sudeikis, but I didn't like either of the lead characters (OMG, they were both, like, soooo hip), so I certainly didn't like them together. And I enjoy crude humor and swearing just as much as the next guy, but it still has to be funny, otherwise it's just like eavesdropping on a conversation between the booth of douchebags sitting behind you at the Waffle House: it's not really entertaining and kind of just makes you feel like walking out.	Nearly the opposite of Going the Distance, I didn't have high expectations of this movie and I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. I may have even shed a tear at one point, but let's not dwell on that, OK? Firstly, I love roller skating and I think being a roller derby girl would be pretty awesome. I guess at my age, that would be kind of a silly dream to follow, and maybe that's why I didn't hate Juliette Lewis's "bully" character, Iron Maven, a late-in-life derby bloomer. (That and she was perfect in the role.) Ellen Page was fantastic as a teenager trying to find herself, and Bliss was a much more likable and believable character than Ellen's best-known (but loathed by me) role, Juno. Drew Barrymore's cackling was kept to a minimum, as her eternally-stoned Smashley Simpson, was merely a side character. Drew was wise to focus on the directing, and she did a great job. She got great performances out of her cast, especially Ellen, Marcia Gay Harden and the hilarious (and lesser-known Wilson brother) Andrew Wilson. The film perfectly walked the line between comedy and coming-of-age drama, and was simply a treat from beginning to end. Up-and-coming musician Landon Pigg as the love interest, though? I just don't get it. But if I were 17 again, it would probably make total sense.
Final Grade:	C-	B+