'Whip It," Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, provides a bit of distance from the visceral smash-bang of a real live roller derby. It also has movie stars. A heavy surge of girl power. And a sense of perfect timing, given what appears to be the international comeback of roller derbies.

"It's definitely having a resurgence, but it's pretty underground," said star Ellen Page ("Juno"). "I went to my first match with Drew and was blown away by the whole world they've created, and the theatrics and the passion behind it -- but first and foremost, that it's really a sport. And that's what they care about."

But "Whip It" is also less about violent action than emancipated girlhood: In suburban Texas, debutante-to-be Bliss Cavendar (Page) is being groomed by her obsessive-compulsive mother (Marcia Gay Harden) for life as a socialite. But what she really wants to do is skate -- although she doesn't realize it until she sees the Austin-based Hurl Scouts and members Maggie Mayhem (Kristen Wiig), Smashley Simpson (Barrymore) and Bloody Holly (Zoe Bell). Bliss takes to the banked rink -- as Babe Ruthless -- and, despite incurring the enmity of Iron Maven (Juliette Lewis), skates to glory.

The camaraderie, the Hurl Scouts cheer of "We're No. 2," the fact that getting the boy isn't the be-all/end-all of existence, all make "Whip It" a movie with multiple messages.

"When I read the script," Page said, "the reason I was so excited I was in it was the thought that if I were 12 years old and this movie was coming out, I would have been flipping my lid. I would have been so excited, largely because I wasn't that female ideal of what the media says we should look like, what we should buy, this strange idea of what femininity is."

For Barrymore, who's been acting since she was a baby, the script by first-timer Shauna Cross (based on her young-adult novel) was a "perfect first fit," partly because she's an actress directing a rink-load of actresses, and also because she's female. One scene, a rather chaste underwater love sequence between Page and Landon Pigg, probably wouldn't have been shot by a male director.

"When I'm given a love scene, I hate acting them out because they're awkward and weird," Barrymore said. "When they're done well, they're brilliant, but I hate doing them myself. So I thought, 'How can I capture the joy of first love?' make it cinematic, make it fluid, pun intended. For those who hate it, I apologize. Anything you love or hate about the movie is absolutely my fault."

What Page, Lewis and Wiig found notable about roller derbies was the diversity.

"There are so many types of people who get drawn to it," Lewis said. "Young, old, all different body shapes, nurses, students, mothers, punk-rock girls."

Wiig said one skater she knows is a teacher with tattoos and pink hair. "When she goes back to work, she dyes it back," she said. "But that's her derby persona."

All of the actresses had to learn to skate. There was even a skating audition. And a bit of bluffery.

"Like any good actor," Lewis said, "I lied. 'Oh, my God, I skate every weekend, what, are you kidding?' I hadn't put on a pair of skates in eight years."

"I got in really good shape," Wiig said. "Then, we stopped shooting, and I went back to usual."

Screenwriter Kirsten Smith ("Legally Blonde"), who helped mentor Cross and her screenplay and is a producer on "Whip It," says that what turned into a five-year project was always about the same thing.

"I think that roller derby is a conduit to power," she said. "And self-confidence, and self-love and the feeling you can do anything. It's very feminine because of the costumes, and it's a little bit tough because of the action. In a way, you get to be a girl's girl and a guy's girl, and that's really exciting."