As you know, 2009's Whip It marked Drew Barrymore's directorial debut and has an 84 percent rating from Rotten Tomatoes. OK, you probably did not know that second fact, although you could have guessed it rated that high because the picture did draw decent critical reviews (but, alas, not much box-office love).
Anyway, that there film set in the female roller derby world? It's helping an OC Roller Girls' nonprofit.
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The OC Roller Girls are, of course, the female squad that darkens the fast track in Huntington Beach. They are teaming with Santa Ana's Frida Cinema Saturday for a Whip It screening benefiting their nonprofit for skaters ages 7-17.
Also promised is a second screening of “another roller skating classic,” which I bet is the one that helped usher me into puberty. I'm surprised I wasn't permanently affixed to my Crest theater seat.
Anyway, the newer classic stars Ellen Page of Juno fame as a rebellious Texas teen who becomes a roller-derby girl. Game support comes from Marcia Gay Harden, Kristen Wiig, Juliette Lewis, Alia Shawkat and the director herself, Barrymore.
Oh, yes, almost forgot: screening attendees are urged to “dust off your tube socks and disco gear for the costume contest.” Posing for photos with OC Roller Girls, sampling eats from food trucks and consuming drinks if you are 21 or over is also on tap. (Writer's note: Alas, permit issues.)
Doors open at 5 p.m. Saturday for “Movie Night with OC Roller Girls” at The Frida, 305 E. 4th St., Santa Ana. Click here for ticket information. And send Ms. Welch my love.
Email: mc****@oc******.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.