Support the Chronicle. Information is power. Support the free press, so we can support Austin. Events Home. Roadshows Live Music Venues. Home Events Movies. The story is set in the indie-punk derby renaissance that began in in Austin and is based on the semiautobiographical novel by Shauna Cross, who also wrote the screenplay. Bliss, in the middle of an identity crisis, stumbles upon two things she loves: the derby and an alternative rocker named Oliver the very engaging singer-songwriter Landon Pigg.
Both will cause her pain; one will seriously disappoint her. Watching her elbow her way through blockers, hip check competitors into the rails and jump fallen bodies at top speed makes it easy to believe that Bliss and Page is having the time of her life. The cast went to roller-derby boot camp and handled most of its own skating and falling.
But you could look at it the other way: a story set in the '00s with a nostalgic '80s tone to it. I've yet to read a single review that takes a side. The Real to Reel critic says, "I defy you you to figure out the time period of this movie," and leaves it at that -- probably the smart thing to do.
But I wouldn't mind getting more closure if possible, and so I watched the film again and made a list of items which favor an '80s setting and an '00s setting. I've also noted certain comparisons to Shauna Cross' novel Derby Girl which the film is based on, and which is unambiguously set in the '00s. There's some of that today, but not to the degree found in pockets of roller derby that were revived throughout the late '70s and '80s, which harked back to the "bloody derby" of the '60s.
In Shauna Cross' novel, "Jolene" is never mentioned, and the song heard by Bliss' mother and sister in the car is not by Whitney Houston, but Celine Dion from the late '90s. The only exception is the song played on Oliver's phonograph, on which see below. In Shauna Cross' novel, I didn't catch any reference to tank tops. This implies that Bliss' mother came of age in the '50s, which would make Bliss a teen of the '80s. In Shauna Cross' novel, there is no remark about '50s womanhood and Bliss is clearly a teen of the '00s.
Yeah, '80s Christian heavy metal. But we later learn that the shirt was her mother's from many years ago, putting the '80s in the distant past. CDs came out in the mid-'80s, of course, but the plastic casing of the CD-ROM looks distinctly '00s, like the dime-a-dozen used by everyone these days for home recording purposes.
Bliss surfs Oliver's website at school, and Bliss' father uses Google born in '98 to search for videos of Bliss and roller derby. It's true that he's a musician and that some audiophiles today continue to prefer record players, but they're in the minority, and vinyl is hard to come by. Audiocassettes, of course, are completely passe. On the other hand, the record which Bliss plays is by Little Joy -- the song "Unattainable", which is from ' So this item counts toward either time period.
In other words, the film is a mess. Activities begin at 10 a. Those who camped out in lawn chairs to spy on filming remember seeing the crews change signs to simulate a Texas location, and, at times, a frustrated Barrymore stomping down M One onlooker managed to get her husband cast as a customer at the diner. My wife wanted to do it, but after they turned her down, she volunteered me.
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