Login
Great movies come in various levels. For every canonized masterpiece like, oh I don’t know, The Red Shoes, there’s another subset of so-bad-they’re-amazing like Showgirls. And then you’ve got the films which are perfectly fine entertainments but seemed destined to become cult-favorites, the kind of movies you sit around quoting with your best friends and watching at a get together. Pitch Perfect is that kind of great movie, not a masterpiece, and far beyond the garbage pile/oddly hypnotic films of midnight showtimes, but the happy medium where it will enjoy a long life.
It meets somewhere in-between the culture clashes of Mean Girls and Bring It On, removing much of the hard-edged spikes of female combativeness to embrace a sisterhood and joyousness in performing. The story beats are predictable, but the characters have enough unique twists to their archetypes to be fresh and lovable personas. And it’s just really, really funny.
Granted, most of the best bits are stolen outright by Rebel Wilson as Fat Amy. Her self-given nickname may seem like a lazy fat joke, but her reasoning behind it provides enough self-awareness and disarming self-confidence to make her character interesting. And then there are all of the scenes and moments which were clearly ad-libbed by Wilson. She projects goofy warmth while hurling out hilarious zingers and sarcastic observations about everyone and everything around her. With this and Bridesmaids, it’s very clear that Wilson is becoming an MVP supporting comedic actress, capable of enlivening the dullest of scenes with an acerbic wit.
This isn’t to say that the other girls aren’t any good, in fact, they’re all uniformly excellent. It’s just that there’s something unhinged about Wilson’s performance that gives it a little extra oomph. Anna Kendrick is carving out a nice post-Oscar nomination career for herself, as long as she steers away from any further What to Expect When You’re Expecting choices. Her lead performance as Beca, the tough, sarcastic but sweet newcomer to the world of a cappella singing, demonstrates her ability to create characters with distinct points-of-view and make them empathetic. Anna Camp and Brittany Snow are a nice comedic duo as the older members of the group, the new de facto leaders. Camp in particular is effective as a character who is essentially a drill sergeant in a mini-skit and stilettos. Ester Dean, Alexis Knapp and Hana Mae Lee are given the most one dimensional characters to deal with, but the give them each a deadpan, manic and fearless unhinged spark, respectively.
Pitch Perfect was one of my more highly enjoyable theatrical experiences of last year, probably because I went with a group of close girl-friends and we had a grand time. We all know Beca is going to end up with the cute Jewish boy at the end. And that the girls are going to get the group in shape and magically turn it out for the finals leading to an unprecedented victory. And all of that is ok. Because it’s the energy and humor on display that make this so entertaining, which is to say nothing of the wonderful musical sequences which pop off the screen with firework-like energy.
