Brought to you by Delta

Delta says, “Your time in the air is a golden opportunity to catch up on Hollywood's latest.” But which of Hollywood’s latest are the chosen ones to practically force passengers to watch?

Delta chooses very specific films to play. They have to be popular, but not so popular that everyone has already seen them. They have to be interesting to all ages and generally engaging and perky to distract everyone from the woes of travel. And of course, they are edited to be family-friendly. What do you end up with? Romantic comedies. This is expected of an American company, as romantic comedies are light-hearted and funny. Generally, you get to watch attractive people go through the obstacles that keep them apart, to fall in love at the end. Who can resist the fun fluff of a silly happy story?

Altogether on both of my flights, they played Invention of Lying (smart and funny-I love you Jennifer Garner!), Love Happens (sappy Jennifer Anniston-fell asleep), Whip It (cool and sentimental), The Informant (for the guys), and Four Christmases (so bad you can’t stop watching!).

The one film that did not quite manage to squeeze itself into the perky romantic comedy box was Whip It. The movie is focused on the roller derby sub-culture of Texas. A teenage girl secretly becomes part of a very alternative group of women who do not at all conform to society’s depiction of ‘woman’. They play a physical contact sport and are very tough and fierce, they have to trip, jab and hit each other to win the roller race. Their style is semi-grunge semi-goth with thick black eyeliner, torn fishnets, short skirts and tattoos. The team’s name is the Hurl Scouts…anyone want to buy some cookies? So the girl joins the team and escapes becoming a beauty pageant queen. And yes, she fall in love with the lead singer in a cool, local band. They do artsy alternative date things like run around a field together and look at the stars. When he goes on tour for a month and ignores her-then comes crawling back-she say’s no.

Whip It’s slogan is ‘Be Your Own Hero’. It’s a grrrl power film that is approved by Delta for all ages. Perhaps it is the sugar director that makes the medicine go down, Drew Barrymore.