We all know the hipster adage that when it comes to entertainment, “If it has mass appeal, I’m going to stay home and listen to The Smiths instead.” So why is it that the entirely mainstream movie, Where the Wild Things Are is getting so many of our hipster buddies to spend their hard-earned parents’ money on tickets? For months the trailers have been glowing before pink, plastic sunglasses and Kanye shades. But why? Have the advertisers launched an ad program on the side of Pabst Blue Ribbon cans?

Nay, dear reader. This must be the work of legendary hipster director Spike Jonze. His career is a tapestry of music videos and freestyle BMX, and some jackass thrown in there for good measure. Sometimes it takes a true genius to realize the trick to giving a movie a sense of documentary realism is to violently shake the camera so frequently and needlessly that one might think Michael J Fox was the Director of Photography. Or was that 28 Weeks Later? Truthfully though, to a hipster, he’s merely a poor man’s Michel Gondry.

Perhaps it was really the music that pulled the hipstery NYU masses in. If the Arcade Fire in the trailer is too “Pitchfork reviewed” for his royal high-ness, then it may have been Karen O’s yodeling throughout the film that titillated those American Apparel tights. Or could it have been the combination of the beautiful Jim Henson Company monster suits, with the occasional nine-year-old doing the robot, with just enough pseudo-intellectual musings to be the fodder for hipster foreplay. The foreplay may sound something like the following conversation:

“When Max said that the sun would eventually die, it was just so…Kafkaesque.”
“Totally PoMo.”
“If you think about it, that could happen like, tomorrow. The sun could burn up and kill us all. We should probably have sex before that happens.”
“Okay, but don’t come so quickly this time.”

The most likely reason is much more practical, however. It is a well known fact that the tight pants worn by the hipster constricts his bladder, giving him a urination frequency comparable to that of your grandmother, so of course hipsters should be excited about Where the Wild Things Are, a movie which moves so slowly that the official bladder management iPhone app, RunPee, has noted that this 100 minute-long movie has no less than six opportunities for a successful pee break. If you’d like, you can compare that to the mere four recommended pee breaks in the glorious two hours and 33 minutes of Inglourious Basterds. Finally, there is a movie that lets us spend more time peeing than watching the movie, without missing any of the plot.

You should watch Whip It online because it is a coming of age story with a twist. Author Shauna Cross wrote a young adult novel titled Derby Girl, from which she adapted the screenplay for Whip It. Ellen Page stars in this inspiring and funny movie about a roller derby league, in which Drew Barrymore makes her directorial debut.

Barrymore proudly told a recent press conference in Toronto that she chose Page for the part before Page was cast in the 2007 movie Juno. Don’t miss your chance to watch Whip It online, or you’ll miss Barrymore in a supporting role, and Kristin Wiig as Malice in Wonderland, who acts as a mentor to new girl Bliss. Marcia Gay Harden and Daniel Stern play Bliss’ parents: a pageant-loving stage mom and a slightly clueless but ultimately supportive father.

Whip It began filming in the summer of 2008 with location work in various Michigan towns. Part of the movie was filmed in Texas, however. See if you can pick out scenes that were shot in Detroit, Michigan and Austin, Texas when you watch Whip It online. Bliss is a teen whose mother pressures her to be in pageants, which she intensely dislikes. So she joins a roller derby league without her mother’s knowledge.

Co-producing with Barry Mendel, Barrymore’s directorial debut is a joint production of her Flower Films, and Mandate Pictures. Barrymore gave herself a small supporting role in the film because of her lack of skating skill. You can watch Whip It online to see how Barrymore does on skates.

Whip It is Barrymore’s debut as a director. She has produced movies since the 90s, including movies like 50 First Dates with Adam Sandler and Charlie’s Angels with Demi Moore, Lucy Liu, and Cameron Diaz. After a fruitless search for a director for Whip It, Barrymore realized she would have to direct it herself to get the picture she wanted.

It is a great idea to watch the 1982 cult classic John Carpenter’s The Thing, prior to viewing the movie Whiteout, since the Thing has grown an enormous following, even though it did awful at the box office. There is another little classic film you may have heard of, E.T. the Extraterrestrial. as E.T. The Extraterrestrial opened that same weekend. The reason you should watch The Thing is that is features a similar Antarctic research compound setting as Whiteout, though The Thing is more of a gross-out sci-fi movie. This distinction in tone and atmosphere from The Thing has been reiterated by Dominic Sena, the director of Whiteout.

Let’s talk more about the film. If you have a monitor that if fair sized, and you choose to watch the movie online, everything should be great. Whiteout is actually based on a Greg Rucka’s graphic novel of the same name rather than John Carpenter’s The Thing, the graphic novel being illustrated by Steve Lieber. The majority of the fans where thrilled that the graphic novel was being turned into a movie. The black and white visuals of the graphic novel fit the Antarctic atmosphere well. There is a sequel to the graphic novel available now called Whiteout: Melt. This new entry seems tailor-made for film adaptation, as it seems to be presented like a storyboard and less like a traditional comic book. Whiteout: Melt has a storyline that contains political intrigue, nuclear weapon theft, and more thrills. In a few years, you may be able to watch Whiteout online along with any sequels it may have.

Northern Manitoba was where most of the film was shot, though it was later moved to a soundstage in Montreal. Through the use of special effects, Manitoba appeared even more chaotic than in reality. The crew and cast of the movie were taught in every way that one could die in the extremely frigid environment, even ways that seemed harmless, like not changing out of clothes made for harsh weather, facing the wind while breathing, or consuming alcohol. Was it worth it all in the end? We’ll see. The initial reviews have been lukewarm; however, box office numbers can many times completely defy the reviews. Whiteout is set to open September 9th.