I started writing this after we watched our first film tonight and realized, after we started watching the second film that I would need to start over and reinstitute something this blog used to do before it went on hiatus... “Oddcoupling”.
Oddcoupling is a fun game. Basically, you take a long list of movies that you haven’t watched, throw the names on pieces of paper and then randomly draw two of the names out of a hat. You’re absolutely locked in to watching those two movies together and you have to figure out some way to tie the two together. It could be a character actor that shows up in both, it could be a thematic element or it could be a common crew member, the key thing is that you find SOME way to tie the two movies together. Here’s the very first Oddcoupling we did. Danny DeVito’s ‘Hoffa’ and the sorority comedy ‘Pumpkin’.
As I mentioned at the beginning, I didn’t set out to try and tie the two together but I realized that it might be an easier way to talk about the two movies so this will be the year’s first unofficial oddcouple. Tomorrow Ang and I might set up a bracket of things we haven’t watched (which was the original intent in the first place... get Angela and I watching the things in our collection that we owned but couldn’t necessarily find the motivation to take off the shelf and throw in the DVD player.). Will ANY of this change how you feel about these two movies in any possible way? No, it’s nothing more than me goofing off, but it may be amusing.
Our first contender of the evening is 2007’s Danish film Fighter (trailer here). It originally made it on to my ‘I really need to see this at some point list’ after it played Fantastic Fest in 2008. The movie focuses on Aicha, a Turkish Muslim high school student struggling with her classes who has a passion for Kung Fu.
Our other contender for the evening is 2009 film Whip It (trailer here), the Drew Barrymore directorial debut all about Roller Derby in Austin, TX (but shot in Detroit... such a sad, sad thing). Ellen Page plays Bliss Cavender, a small town Texan girl struggling with her classes who discovers she has a passion for roller derby.
There are at least seven things that I’ve been able to find that loosely tie the two films together. In our loosest connection, both films feature TRAINING MONTAGES! Since at their heart both movies Rites of Passage sports movies it goes without saying that there are training montages. As Team America said it’s the easiest way to go from a beginner to a pro.
Connection #2
The girl hides what she’s doing from her parents because she fears their disapproval.
Connection #2a
This fear of disapproval is brought on because both sets of parents want her to be doing something that she doesn’t particularly want to do. In Whip It, Ellen Page is clearly not cut out to be a pageant girl. In Fighter it’s quite evident that our main character needs to be kicking butt and not fixing butts as a doctor.
Connection #3
Both movies feature a bad guy who threatens to or actually does out the character. The stakes are much higher in Fighter. Being accused of being a promiscuous woman who spends time around non family-member men in a muslim family could mean an honor killing. If Bliss’ parents find out she’s been driving to Austin to be a roller derby star she’s probably just going to get grounded.
Connection #4
By participating in their sports, they inadvertently punish characters close to them. After being accused of promiscuity in Fighter, Aicha’s brothers engagement is broken off which is a big deal when it turns out that the ex-fiancee is pregnant. Their pre marriage picadillo never would have come to light if the marriage had gone through as planned... and the brother wouldn’t have suffered a pretty savage beating. Again, the stakes in Whip It are much smaller. Bliss’ best friend gets caught drinking underage and goes to jail for the evening.
Connection #5
Both characters after they’ve ‘been found out’ make a decision to not participate in their crowning achievement. Both end up going to the event anyway.
Connection #6
In a slightly stronger connection, both films have a Bad News Bears-esque twist and they don’t actually win the events that they, in the sports cliche movie should probably win. In both films the characters come in second.
Connection #7
Strangely, and this actually really bothered me in Fighter. both lead characters make amends with their ‘outer’ after their ‘outer’ beats them. Seriously though, if your opponent could have gotten you murdered by accusing you of being promiscuous, I’m not giving him a high five as we stand next to each other on the podium. I don’t care how into the spiritual aspects of kung fu you are.
Minor connection #8 - both leads sort of end up running/frolicing with their romantic interest. That’s pretty minor and insignificant.
I think I appreciated Fighter much more as a film than I did Whip It. But I think that I'm generally more swayed by straight dramas than dramadies. That said, I really struggled with how I should react to the muslim parents. In our pluralistic society we're told not to judge but I have real issues with how women are treated a lot of times in Muslim society. Thankfully in our fictitious girls case she wasn't murdered to right her fathers honor but at the end of the story she only begrudgingly gets her fathers catatonic recognition of her worth as a human being. My original review dealt more with that aspect. That's honestly something that I'm still sorting out and maybe I'll try and collect my thoughts on another occasion.
So, what do you think? Are these movies the same film? Probably not. I’m kind of surprised at how many little connections there were though. There are only so many character arcs but it’s interesting when two plots line up like they do. Check out Whip It later this month when it comes out on DVD and Fighter is currently available over at Amazon.
More tomorrow.
B
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