Over the years, we have witnessed the triumph of at least a half a dozen hockey and soccer teams over their proverbial Goliaths. We have cheered on multiple water boys, replacement players, and middle-aged men as they have proven themselves to be more than meets the eye on the football field. We have watched baseball teams bring crowds to their knees and life to entire towns. And this fall, adding to only a handful of sports movies for and about women, Whip It reminds us gals that discovering our inner potential and learning the value of team spirit isn't an exercise solely for the boys.

The directorial debut of Drew Barrymore, Whip It is pretty much a sports movie for girls and a high school coming-of-age dramedy for women of almost all ages. At its center stands Bliss Cavender (Ellen Page), the meek teenaged daughter of a pageant mother who spends her days working at the Oink Joint and dreaming of leaving her small town home of Bodeen, Texas. Cue an afternoon shopping trip to Austin and a chance encounter with several roller derby girls out promoting the next Skate Night at the Warehouse. Jump to the first of many scenes at the derby track which made me want to go straight home and buy a pair of skates. Trade Bliss's white cotillion dress for a pair of skates and a Hurl Scouts uniform, surround her with teammates and opponents including Barrymore's Smashlee Simpson, Kristen Wigg's Maggie Mayhem, and Juliette Lewis's Iron Maiden, and skirt around the fact that Bliss is underage and has told her parents that she spends her afternoons attending an SAT class. And so begins a journey of self-realization, empowerment, and family both on and off the derby track.

As Barrymore has stated in interviews for the film, Whip It is very much about becoming your own hero. A film about girls in a genre of film mainly for and about boys, its tale of physical boldness and triumph tells us that we don't have to wait around for men to tell those kinds of stories for us. Handling its romantic subplot a bit differently than most similar stories, it tells us we don't even need boys by our side. Placing Bliss in the middle of a team of women older than her, it knocks over the idea that we are either too young or too old discover our passion or make our mark. And portraying a journey that has Bliss both choosing a different dream for her life than that which her mother has for her and embarking on a journey that doesn't exactly follow the traditional high school to college path, it places individuality at the center of personal empowerment.

But as the Hurl Scouts' Coach tells Bliss soon after she makes the team, "This is a contact sport, Bliss. Eventually you're going to have to make contact." As she embarks on her derby career, that Bliss must be able to take hits and give hits to clear her way comes to life both on and off the track. But more than just a tale of rebellion and aggressive independence, as Bliss gets knocked down by a few real-life hits and finds herself facing the damaged relationships that have resulted from a few of her own blows, Whip It also proves itself to be a powerful portrait of the necessity of connection with others. And as she moves forward through both her own efforts and with the help of others, Bliss redefines the idea of life as a contact sport to both include the blows that may knock us down and the hands that we need to help us up.

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