Drew Barrymore, as we all know, has been in movies for the last 300 years, so it was only a matter of time before she upped and made one herself. "Whip It," Barrymore's directorial debut, is a girl-power fairy tale about a Texas teen who falls in love with the competition and camaraderie of roller derby. The film has its fair share of flaws, but to single them out might be like giving a bad review to a warm bath ("Too relaxing!") or a boxy little puppy ("Why so cuddly?"). It's impossible to knock anything that makes you feel this good, regardless of whatever rookie mistakes Barrymore has made behind the camera...like following the sports-movie blueprint to the letter.

But even if you know where you're going, you can still appreciate the drive, and this one starts in a nowhere town outside of Austin, where Bliss (Ellen Page) has been dutifully obliging her mother Brooke's (Marcia Gay Harden) beauty-pageant hopes, until the day she spies a bevy of tattooed beauties on wheels hawking their upcoming bout. Long story short, this tiny thing becomes part of the Hurl Scouts, a floundering team whose love of competing offsets the fact that they suck. And as derby consumes her life, Bliss finds herself making selfish choices and lying to those she loves, forcing her to take responsibility, learn lessons, et cetera.

Sure, it's predictable. But Barrymore, adapting Shauna Cross's novel "Derby Girl," stamps her particular brand of bubbly joy on the whole thing, molding "Whip It" into something more than just "Bully Elliot." (Sorry! Needed a roller-derby pun.) Standing out among the cast are old-school pros like Juliette Lewis as a complex rival and Daniel Stern as Bliss's good-natured father. Yet the most interesting character is actually Harden's Brooke, who feels more authentic than most screen moms. And while there is a love interest for Bliss, her most fulfilling relationships are with her mother, her best friend, and her team. For once in this bromantic era, a womance.