When my tweenage daughter begged me to allow her to see Pitch Perfect, I honestly thought she was talking about that Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore movie where they write music together and she waters his plants. It’s actually not. It’s not about baseball either. And it’s not (OH NO IT’S NOT) just Glee: The Big Screen College Version.
It is, however, a tiny piece of comedy gold.
I am just as surprised as you are.
Pitch Perfect is to a capella as Bring It On is to cheerleading—except this is a world without cheerocracies or cheertators; instead it’s filled with aca-awesome singing and aca-politics between two rival college a capella groups—The Treblemakers, the overly emotive dude singers, and The Bellas, the all-girls team, currently in a rebuilding year following an unfortunate cookie-tossing on-stage performance.
Even though the Bellas may not look as perfect in their flight attendent-esque performance costumes, this band of misfits brings nothing but big, big laughs. From Rebel Wilson‘s horizontal-running, burrito-taking Fat Amy to Hana Mae Lee‘s psychopath whisperer Lily to Brittany Snow‘s naked singing, node-having Chloe to Alexis Knapp‘s sex addict, unable-to-learn-the-Bella’s-handshake Stacie.
As an added bonus, we get to see Anna Kendrick‘s Beca cozy up to Skylar Astin’s Jesse (A Dane Cook lookalike Treblemaker, egads!) as he stack cds at the campus radio station and teaches Beca to appreciate the beauty of The Breakfast Club and its perfect soundtrack and ending.
Elizabeth Banks—who is also a producer on the film—and John Michael Higgins are scene-stealers as a pair of a capella judges whose lines like, “Nothing makes a woman feel more like a girl than a man who sings like a boy,” and, “Women are about as good at a cappella as they are at being doctors,” would make any song-and-dance watcher more than slightly uncomfortable.
Oh, and there’s an Almost Famous bus scene, only it’s done to a Miley Cyrus song.
While Glee has lost me completely—it’s old and tired and filled with two many theme episodes—Pitch Perfect is, well, perfect—it’s got just the right mix of nerd-singing, self deprecation, adorable romance, mash-ups, and Rebel Wilson.
About Ali Martell
