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At 34, most people in show business are just beginning to make their mark and prove their staying power. For Drew Barrymore, 34 means her third decade in the business. Although she did her first minor TV appearances at 3 and 5, and her first film was Ken Russell’s whacked out Altered States in 1980, Barrymore first captured moviegoers at the tender age of 7 when she melted hearts with her tear-inducing performance in Steven Spielberg’s E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. Flash forward 27 years, and you’ll find an accomplished actress, producer and now director.

For her directorial debut, Whip It, Barrymore enlisted an all-star cast to flesh out her longtime dream of stepping behind the camera, including Juno’s Ellen Page, Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden, “Saturday Night Live”’s Kristen Wiig, Juliette Lewis, Jimmy Fallon, Eve and Andrew Wilson.

Based on the book by Austinite and UT Film School alum Shauna Cross, the film follows Bliss Cavendar (Page), a misplaced waitress of the Oink Joint in Bodeen, Texas, who struggles through every Miss Bluebonnet pageant for her pageant-obsessed mom (Harden). She finally finds her calling in Austin when her and her best friend sneak out to catch a roller derby match. Eventually joining the Hurl Scouts, Cavendar becomes known as Babe Ruthless and enters a world of free-spirited women and fierce competition that begins to take the place of her dead end small town life. Read the rest of this entry »