Pitch Perfect review

Full disclosure, I was an a cappella nerd in a college, so a lot of Pitch Perfect hit very close to home. It was adapted from the book of the same name that profiled a cappella groups at Tufts University. How accurate is it? I can report that yes, there were intense intra-a cappella rivalries, bizarre freshman hazing rituals, and very often groups were differentiated by their brand: stoner guys, classical glee club nerds, the party group, the gay group. And all-girl groups were definitely at the bottom of the totem pole. By focusing on the fictional all-girls Barden Bellas, Pitch Perfect has a built in underdog story.

The Bellas are trying to rebuild after a disastrous showing at nationals at Lincoln Center where aca-veteran Aubrey (Anna Camp) spews Exorcist style during a rendition of Ace of Base's "The Sign." The Bellas' reputation has been tainted and the following year, returning members Aubrey and Chloe's (Brittany Snow) recruiting difficulties lead to a group composed not of cardio-happy Greeks, but of misfits including the self-styled Fat Amy ("So twig bitches like you don't call me it behind my back") played by Rebel Wilson, Lilly, a practically mute Asian girl in the tradition of Sister Act's Sister Mary Roberts, a promiscuous ditz, and a lesbian with a gambling addiction.



Chloe scores a coup when she gets aspiring DJ Beca (Anna Kendrick) to join after an awkward shower-time harmonization to "Titanium." Beca is not the joiner type: she's a spiky-earring sporting, heavy eye-liner wearing, electronic music obsessed DJ who only agrees to join a club so that her father will let her leave Barden after freshman year to move to LA. It's no surprise that Anna Kendrick's got some serious singing chops. I remember her killing it nearly a decade ago as scheming musical theater camper Fritzy in Camp, a film where she also sings while wading through vomit.

But surprisingly for this Oscar nominee, the singing is what comes easy. She is game when very convincingly rapping "No Diggity" during the riff off, a kind of a cappella Aguilerean rumble. But for the most part, Beca's kind of a wet rag, sullen and resentful. It's not entirely her fault as the character is written that way: not watching ends of movies is not an endearing character trait, but clearly the sign of a sociopath. She is wooed by the marginally more appealing Jesse (Skylar Astin), a new member of the Bellas' main rivals, the all-male Treble Makers. Though a little full of himself, he does like movie endings, specifically The Breakfast Club. A Treble-maker/Bella dating moratorium complicates matters for Jesse, but the buildup toward a climactic showdown between the Bellas and Treble-makers at Nationals follows a predictable route.

While the a cappella premise is original, Pitch Perfect is a pastiche of some of the best teen movie tropes. Most notably, Pitch Perfect models itself after Bring It On, the cheerleading tale of a type-A captain (Kirsten Dunst) dealing with rebuilding a squad after the status quo is challenged by a rival group, bringing in a badass (Eliza Dushku) to spice things up. And it all leads up to a spectacular nationals finale! The only difference is Pitch Perfect has moved the focus from the blonde, perky captain to the anti-social outsider. This results in the character of Aubrey coming off as a tyrannical villain and one note. She's mostly played for laughs with her Exorcist style vomiting, but something tells me Aubrey is indeed the more fascinating character thanks to Anna Camp's awesomeness. She's been great in recurring roles on True Blood and Mad Men so this comes as no surprise.

Bring it On and Sister Act are not the only films alluded to: the a cappella competition includes producer Elizabeth Banks and John Michael Higgins providing color commentary in the vein of Best in Show, and the gross-out humor and raunchy one-liners call to mind Bridesmaids. In fact the Pitch Perfect poster featuring the girls vamping side by side in front of an industrial background is a Bridesmaids rip off. So if it doesn't get points for originality, it should for weaving together these cliches so deftly. Like one of Beca's mash ups, the movie comes off like a cover version of the movies that inspire it, reassembled in a crowd-pleasing way. If anything, the predictable narrative lets the one-liners and fantastic comedic delivery shine through. The jokes are great and belly-aching, like an SNL sketch that hits its stride in its second outing. Which brings me to the main reason to run as fast as you can to see this movie: Rebel Wilson. This is a career making role as Fat Amy. Her timing is excellent and the she is just plain hilarious. I have not laughed this hard at a movie in a long, long time. I predict this will go down in the pantheon of endlessly quotable female-driven comedies which includes Clueless, Mean Girls, and naturally Bring It On.