Drew Barrymore couldn’t make a better directorial debut than she does with Whip It. She has been producing films for 15 years now, as well as being a respected actress; so it wasn’t like she was walking into this blindfolded. But now she can add happily, director to her long list of achievements.

The plot itself was perfect for Barrymore to play around with. Written brilliantly by real life roller derby star, Shawna Cross, the story focuses on the life of Bliss Cavander (Juno’s Ellen Page). She is a plain normal teen living the small town of Bodeen, Texas. Her mother uses Bliss and her younger sister to relive her beauty pageant days. While Bliss’s little sister enjoys them, Bliss can’t help but long to do more with her life.

Then she sees the advert for a roller derby event and her life changes forever. By pretending to be a very unrealistic age of 22, Bliss tries out for the local roller derby team. You can guess whether she makes it on the team or not.

Nothing about this movie is actually that new. Yes, the use of roller derby is different but the whole emancipation from your parents, finding yourself, feel-good comedy is exactly the same. The reason this film works so well is because the cast was perfect. Every single performance was as strong as it needed to be and there was no one in the cast that needed to be replaced. Something that is very rare in movies nowadays.

Ellen Page proves that while she will always be remembered for a debut into Hollywood as Juno, she has a lot more to offer this industry. She is small enough to be the timid teenage daughter but a big enough actress to portray the rebellious young woman who is set free as ‘Babe Ruthless’.

Marcia Gay Harden is sensational as Bliss’ mother, the former beauty queen who is trying to do the best for her daughters the only way she knows how. You are never truly angry with her because you know she means well. While Daniel Stern brings many laughs to tense scenes as Bliss’ father who keeps quiet to make living with his wife as stress free as possible. Comedy also comes from Bliss’ workplace, The Oink Joint, thanks to her best friend Pash and her boss Birdman.

But this film is all about the ‘Hurl Scouts’ and how they help Bliss become her own woman. While Barrymore allows herself to take the screen as Smashley Simpson, it is Kristen Wig’s ‘Maggie Mayhem’ that takes Bliss under her wing and provides the mother role without knocking Bliss’ real mother out of the way.

Juliette Lewis puts in a star turn as Iron Maven, the leader of the Hurl Scouts rival team. She is fake and bitchy and sets up the most amazing food fight ever but you find yourself sympathising with her character and fully understanding her motives.

Of course, the film wouldn’t be the same without a little love story and we get that from Oliver – the cool boy in a band that Bliss falls for. The romance is sweet and pure and nothing special. It doesn’t end how you think it would and you love the movie because of it.

It is through one of the love scenes that Barrymore truly impressed me. There have been many romantic scenes in a swimming pool but Drew Barrymore managed to make this one more romantic and somehow so much more original. It was actually beautiful to watch. It would never happen but it was the perfect way to film that scene.

But the best thing had to be the roller derby plays. The coach was so funny and you finally got to see some of his plays, you had to exclaim out loud. Roller derby isn’t a pretty girlie sport and you have to love it. The matches aren’t made to look any prettier than they are in real life. It’s painful and sly but so entertaining.

This is a movie all about female empowerment without having to be all serious and depressing about it. It’s fun and irresistible – just like the director.

By Nola Ojomu

We are incredibly honoured to be able to introduce some new student writers who join TNC from Bournemouth University. Nola Ojomu, who was lucky enough to attend the premier of Get Him To The Greek will be heading out to more film previews, premiers, and special events for TNC. This is the first review from Nola for TNC.

What can you expect from a film that has the director of Forgetting Sarah Marshall and the producers of Knocked Up and Super Bad, starring Russell Brand and Jonah Hill mixed with the random addition of P Diddy…A rather funny movie! Not the best you’ll ever see but funny enough to live up to expectations and one of the funniest. For those who haven’t seen Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Russell Brand reprises his supporting role as the rock star Aldon Snow.

The film starts with Aldon filming the video for his new song African Child and for that first 15 minutes chronicling his decent from the top of the charts, the whole cinema was laughing their heads off.

With his record company in the trouble and his boss (P Diddy) desperate for ideas, ambitious junior exec Aaron Green (Jonah Hill) suggests getting washed-up rock star Aldon Snow (Russell Brand) to recreate his sell-out show at the Greek Theatre in LA. But getting Snow there isn’t as easy as he would hope it would be. Snow is drug/sex/booze addict who is longing for his ex-wife and the career he used to have.

The songs throughout the whole film are rude and incredibly catchy. ‘Ring around my posey’, or something along those titles, being one of my favourites. There are so many quotable moments that people will laugh at over and over again. Exactly what you want from a comedy!

Russell Brand isn’t really being challenged with the role of Aldon Snow. He basically plays a mix of every rock star in history and adds a little bit of himself in there as well. Of course he’s going to be funny. But then maybe he is an amazing actor because imagine if he wasn’t funny in a role that he should exceed at. That would have caused a lot of problems.

Jonah Hill also returns from Forgetting Sarah Marshall but instead of being a Hawaiian super fan, he is now a normal junior exec super fan who is cute and lovable and his innocent brings a few laughs. Here we have yet another actor who isn’t really doing anything new but is very successful at playing the same type of role that we’ve seen him do many times.

This film is rude, ridiculous and raunchy but the writer has attempted, as always, to have a deep emotional moment with a lesson learned at the end. I think it works well enough and I doubt there’ll be many people who’ll walk out and complain about it when the film is over.

‘When life throws you a Jeffrey…..stroke the fur!’

Rating : ****

Few films can be as stark, harsh, and powerful as Pelican Blood.  This film is not just a genuine work of art, or love, loss, and suicide, it is quite frankly one of the finest films of its type to be part of EIFF 2010.  This, much like Skeletons, has set such a bar for British films it’s going to be hard to see how all the others fair, but right now Pelican Blood will become a film that stays with you.

The World Premier of Pelican Blood takes place tonight at Cineworld Fountain Park, Edinburgh at 17:30pm. Actors Harry Treadaway, Emma Booth, Ali Craig and dir. Karl Golden will be in attendance with 50 Birdwatchers. Pelican Blood is also nominated for this years Michael Powell Award.

Before this years EIFF we did a preview of this film because the topic was intriguing and from the blurb we where sent and the trailer the film seemed like a odd bag of birdwatching, passion, love and suicide, not really topics for your classic British flick. What it becomes is something all together different, a powerful and harsh love story in dealing with the issue and reality of suicide in a way that shows respect and understanding without trying to to belittle the subject by making it too sweet or romantic.

The film starts off quit as blunt as it means to with Nikko (Harry Treadaway) telling us that two people made a deal to kill themselves but only one was serious. This cuts to a funeral of Nico’s mother as there are a few shots of Nikko getting dressed in which we see the scars along his shoulder and arms from his many attempts. The movie then follows an unconventional route of Nico and his two best friends, Bish and Mike as they indulge in their hobby, or life’s passion, birdwatching.

At the core of the film lies a disastrous relationship between Nikko and his former girlfriend Stevie (Emma Booth) whom he had agreed to end his life with. Throughout the film you feel nothing but anger towards Stevie and empathize fully with the other characters in the film disliking her fully.  The first reunion between Nikko and Stevie seems strange, almost forced and confusing. It’s not until later in we get to understand why. Stevie is Nikko’s herion and be is not only addicted to her but also to how he sees his life and his inevitable suicide.

They both seem to need each other but Stevie seems the more in control of the two and the more they talk the more clearer, ever though slightly, Nikko’s suicide attempt becomes. The backstory of this comes in very small drops with little clarity or light shown to their history.  This aides the film amazingly as the passion that Nikko has for birdwatching and for his own life becomes a central player with some of the outdoor scenes bringing a breathtaking beauty, freedom, and life to Nikko’s life it becomes hard for you ro see or understand why he would want to kill himself.

Harry Treadaway (Nikko) does something that is simply amazing and that is he gives a performance that is not only honest and true but also full of understanding for who and where Nikko is. The director handles his topic with such skill it never becomes uncomfortable or exploitative. The film doesn’t try to explain the reason why someone might kill themselves but instead tries to show you Nikko as he his.

You are drawn instantly to Nikko, he has a warmth and beauty that almost pours out of him yet he himself doesn’t see it. The film concludes against what you might be thinking and right up until we find out what has happened you will be left thinking that Nikko has been betrayed, and in someway he has. Pelican Blood is without doubt a stunning, powerful, and breathtaking work, this film is bound to become a classic.

It is hard to do this job sometimes. I mean here I am sat in a rather beautiful cinema, Cameo in Edinburgh, and it’s 08.45am. Not the most ideal time to watch any film let alone one as complex and wondrous as director Nick Whitfield’s Skeletons. This British film, up for nomination for this years Michael Powell Award, is one that will remain with you.  Its originality, beauty, and humour is aided by a brilliant cast and an amazing script.

We all know the saying ‘Skeletons in our/your closet’. In Skeletons we get to meet two closet exorcist, David and Bennet, played by the ingenious pairing of Andrew Buckley and Ed Gaughan. Their job is to rid people of any issues they might have, any problems, and they quite simply, clean out the closets of those who need it. Their task is set by The Colonel, played by Jason Isaacs, yet we are held back on finding out too much about their job or their powers.

Both Bennett (Buckley) and Davis (Gaughan) are faced by the embarrassing surprises that they inside their clients closets. At times its a beautiful thing to watch as they go inside this ‘world’ and their conclusion (to which there is only one for the viewer) is incredibly cold.  It’s this coldness that causes the first cracks in the relationship between Bennett and Davis as Bennett fells like they should offer more and leaving them after they find out what lies inside their closets is unfair.

The two exorcists are plagued with their own demons with Davis, a loner, addicted to one moment in his past, with Bennett, a loveable understanding and very sensitive bear like man, able to hold his composure and not let the main core of their misson get in the way. They are swapped a case by their boss and told of a promotion to the A-team (which means global closet cleaning) but The Colonel has is doubts about Davis who he sees as a son. The case they swap involves a missing person.

Hollywood in Smalltownsville

I had to look twice when I was watching Skeletons.  I was sure I know it was Jason Isaacs but I wasn’t sure.  His rough northern accent and his more than shift eyes didn’t convince me.  Part of me was a little unsure because a) this was director Whitfield’s debut, and b) it was a small independent British film.  That said Isaacs puts in as wonderful performance as the main characters, he holds back what he knows and what he can do but we, much like Davis and Bennett, are more than aware of his power.

As David starts to lose control over his personal addiction Bennett starts to take over the running of this case. Their new case takes a strange turn when Bennett is unable to get a reading and so decides to stay with the woman, played by Paprika Steen, and her two children Rebecca and Jojo. As the relationships between the mother, JoJo and Bennett begin to evolve the relationship between Davis and Bennett begins to sour.

Nick Whitfield, writer/director of Skeletons, has done something truly amazing with his feature debut. The use of countryside invokes space and freedom and his occasional use of trains and train lines only adds more to movement and freedom that the two main characters - and later on Jane – don’t have.  His script is full of wit, observations, and cleverly written dialogue that Gaughan and Buckley are only to adept at delivering with honesty and conviction.

Few debuts are as so well paced, original, and authentic as Skeletons and its inclusion in the Michael Powell Award this year is justified and then some.  This film is about to become a modern classic and follow in the footsteps of last years MP Award Winner Duncan Jones and his debut Moon.