History Film / WhipIt

* PintsizedPowerhouse: Bliss all the way, although what's most remarkable about her is her speed, not her strength--she gets knocked down plenty.

* DarkSkinnedBlonde: Rosa Sparks is a black girl with her hair bleached blonde.

* GettingCrapPastThe Radar: In the alternative store in Austin, Brooke spies some bongs and comments, "Ooh, pretty vases!" The staff think this is hilarious, then one of them quips in a CampGay voice that, "They're great for tulips, really." One wonders how many of the censors realised a "Dutch tulip" is a fancy way of rolling a joint...

* TightsUnderShorts: This is a staple of Roller Derby "Boutfits." (in the film and in real life: All WFTDA Division 1 and most Division 2 leagues now use uniform tops but permit skaters wide latitude in deciding what they wear from the waist down)

* RomanticTwoGirlFriendship: Bliss and Pash. Bliss is very new to the sport and so likely has not found someone she feels strongly enough about to be her derby wife, her team act more as surrogate mothers to their very young teammate.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* HoYay: Lots of it. Some of it even made it into the film (Ari Gaynor's played Eva Destruction as a lesbian seductress).

* BadassBeard: Razor has one to indicate how he's the team's hardass coach. Subverted in that Razor's also kind of a dork who's not really terribly functional outside of derby. And he skates on [[BerserkButton rollerblades]].

* NotSoDifferent: While her ambitions (athletics vs. beauty) are different from her mother's, Bliss has inherited more of her mother's drive than her father's easygoing, conflict-averse nature.

* RealityEnsues: Babe Ruthless hitting the rail after a fierce hit leaves her stunned on the track for a few moments afterward.

* BillyElliotPlot: Female example. Bliss wants to do roller derby, but her mother wants her to participate in beauty pageants.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In the alternative store in Austin, Brooke spies some bongs and comments, "Ooh, pretty vases!" The staff think this is hilarious, then one of them quips in a CampGay voice that, "They're great for tulips, really." One wonders how many of the censors realised a "Dutch tulip" is a fancy way of rolling a joint...

The film stars Creator/ElliotPage as a 17-year old reluctant beauty pageant contestant named Bliss Cavendar in Bodeen, Texas, who discovers and falls in love with the Austin UsefulNotes/RollerDerby circuit. She goes to roller derby tryouts and gets selected for the Hurl Scouts, the worst team in the league. But with Bliss's amazing speed and coach Razor's playbook, they might just be able to challenge the Holy Rollers, the top team in the league, and maybe even win the championship.

* AdaptedOut: Bliss' life in Bodeen is a much smaller percentage of the film's running time; an understandable reduction considering the visual appeal of roller derby vs. the prosaic nature of Bliss' hometown.
* AnachronismStew: The time frame is ambiguous. The movie shows websites, Google and Wikipedia, that weren't popular until the 2000s, and Pash's parents put a GPS tracker in her car. However, the computers in the movie look like they're from the 1990s (or earlier), and nobody uses cell phone. (Then again, it could be that the small town Bliss lives in is so poor their computers were all hand-me-downs.)

* BittersweetEnding: Bliss [[spoiler:breaks up with her cheating boyfriend, and then loses the last jam of the game to Iron Maven,]] but she also [[spoiler:finally wins Maven's respect on the track and reconciles with her family.]]

* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Bliss's family has herself as the brunette, her little sister as the blonde and her mother as the redhead.

* ContrivedCoincidence: The Bluebonnet Ball is the very same evening as the championship roller derby match. In the novel this was arranged by the fire-marshal bust seen in the movie causing the date of the championship to be moved by a week.

* DarkestHour: Bliss' skates are taken away, Pash has told her all the wrong things she's done over the last few months, she ran away from home and was forced to admit to her team that she lied about her age, losing her skating status... and then she discovers that Oliver's been cheating on her. When next we see her, Bliss is curled up on the floor at home in front of her fridge, stress-eating a bowl of leftover casserole.

* FromBadToWorse: Pash gets arrested for underage drinking. Bliss' parents find out the truth about her roller derby double life and take away her skates. Pash stops speaking to Bliss. Maven blackmails Bliss into quitting roller derby due to Bliss being underage. And to top all that off, [[spoiler:Bliss discovers that Oliver has cheated on her and has given away her Music/{{Stryper}} t-shirt to a groupie]].

* OlderThanTheyLook: Iron Maven dares Bliss to guess her age. Bliss gives her a generous 'twenty seven'. She's actually thirty-six.

* PlotMandatedFriendshipFailure: After Bliss' skates are confiscated by her parents, who have just found out in the worst way possible that she's been lying to them about where she's going and what she's doing during her "SAT class," Bliss is disowned by Pash in a cutting TheReasonYouSuckSpeech.

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The Hurl Scouts. Implied to be the case with the other derby teams, as well. Also TruthInTelevision: A roller derby team can have on it a stay-at-home mom, a banking vice-president, a physicist and many, many other kinds of women who are bound together by their common interest in the sport.

* RefusalOfTheCall: After seeing the Hurl Scouts play the Holy Rollers at the exhibition match, Bliss suggests to Pash that they both try out for roller derby. Pash doesn't want to, and spends the majority of the movie cheering on Bliss from the audience.

* SatelliteLoveInterest: Oliver acts like the very definition of this trope, since his scenes mainly consist of him digging Bliss, and Bliss digging him right back. The trope is {{deconstructed|Trope}} a bit, however, as he [[spoiler:only acts this way [[TheCasanova in order to get into Bliss' pants]]. And she falls for it.]]

** [[spoiler:Subverted again at the end, when the Hurl Scouts--Razor included--celebrate the fact that, holy crap, they actually jumped all the way from ''last place'' to ''the finals''.]]

* ShownTheirWork: At several times during the shown matches, a jammer is shown waving their arms up and down by repeatedly placing their hands on their hips. This is never explained within the film, but is the means by which a lead jammer can end a jam and prevent any further scoring.

* StatusQuoIsGod: [[spoiler:Although they eventually make to the finals, they still lose despite giving it their best, but, "there's always next year!"...]]

* TightsUnderShorts: This is a staple of Roller Derby "Boutfits." (in the film and in real life: All WFTDA Division 1 and most Division 2 leagues now use uniform tops, but permit skaters wide latitude in deciding what they wear from the waist down)

* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQGPdXnb2Gg The trailer]] shows that [[spoiler:Bliss' parents eventually discover her roller derby career, and two seconds later it spoils their eventual reconciliation.]]
* TrueBlueFemininity: Bliss's mother - who wants her daughter to be more feminine - is frequently dressed in blue outfits. Even her work clothes are blue. Bliss's blue hair at the first pageant is ''not'' an example however.

* InformedAbility: Completely averted with Ellen Page's portrayal of Bliss - Page actually got quite good at roller derby during the filming of the movie.

* ReallySeventeenYearsOld: Bliss, at age 17, claims to be 22 years old. Ellen Page actually ''was'' that age at the time.

The film stars Creator/EllenPage as a 17-year old reluctant beauty pageant contestant named Bliss Cavendar in Bodeen, Texas, who discovers and falls in love with the Austin UsefulNotes/RollerDerby circuit. She goes to roller derby tryouts and gets selected for the Hurl Scouts, the worst team in the league. But with Bliss's amazing speed and coach Razor's playbook, they might just be able to challenge the Holy Rollers, the top team in the league, and maybe even win the championship.

A 2009 sports-themed dramedy movie directed by Creator/DrewBarrymore, adapted from writer Shauna "Maggie Mayhem" Cross' 2007 novel ''Derby Girl.''

* {{Ham To Ham Combat}}: Johnny Rocket and Razor [[CrowningMomentOfFunny having a pitifully bad dance-off]] at the hot tub party.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In the alternative store in Austin, Brooke spies some bongs and comments, "Ooh, pretty vases!" The staff think this is hilarious, then one of them quips that, "They're great for tulips, really." One wonders how many of the censors realised a "Dutch tulip" is a fancy way of rolling a joint...

--> '''Brooke:''' Whoever he is, he doesn't deserve you.