A few nights ago I got to attend an advance preview of the movie Pitch Perfect and needless to say I was just a bit excited. I feel a bit biased because I loved this movie from the moment I saw the first trailer, but combining students and show choirs is just a recipe for success in my books. Pitch Perfect stars Anna Kendrick, who a lot of people will know from Twilight but I had to tell my husband that she was that girl in Up in The Air before he knew who she was. He does not share my love for Twilight movies.
Anna plays the lead character of Beca, a freshman at Barden College who’s got the whole ‘alt/angsty’ girl thing going on. You see, Beca wants nothing more than to move to LA to be a dj and produce music, but her dad, who happens to be a professor at Barden, insists that she get her free college education first. On orientation day Beca runs into Chloe and Aubrey who are recruiting for their acapella group The Barden Bellas, an all female acapella group that like to sing songs like “I Saw The Sign’ while wearing glorified flight attendant uniforms. Chloe basically confronts Beca in the shower after hearing her sing and insists she join the group. Beca then tries to get the Bellas to try something different musically but her ideas are met with resistance by prim and proper group leader Aubrey.
The Barden Bellas have a rival acapella group on campus known as the Treblemakers. Headed up by Bumper (played hilariously by Adam Devine of ‘Workaholics’) the Treblemakers are a group of guys who are a lot obnoxious, a little nerdy and completely overconfident. Enter Jesse, played by Skylar Astin, as the quiet wannabe movie scorer (is that a word?) who is interning with Beca at the campus radio station. Clearly there’s an attraction between Jesse and Beca, but Jesse joins the Treblemakers and the Bellas are forbidden to associate with the Trebles because they’re arch enemies.
OK so that’s basically the plot of the movie but not what makes the movie really great. Pitch Perfect has been described as a full length movie sized version of Glee. I can’t say that I disagree with that completely. What I can tell you is that the movie is so much more than just the musical numbers – which are fantastic if I’m being honest here. The supporting cast has some of the strongest characters I’ve ever seen on the big screen. Rebel Wilson steals the movie with her portrayal of Fat Amy. There is not a moment when she’s on screen that I wasn’t laughing out loud. And as strong a supporting character as Rebel is, the rest of the Barden Bellas were equally entertaining and laugh out loud funny.
Pitch Perfect not only delivers ridiculously entertaining musical mash ups but it also delivers some of the funniest lines I’ve heard in a long time. Pay particular attention to Hanna Mae Lee’s character Lilly. There was a moment where I thought I was going to have to leave the theatre because I couldn’t get my obnoxious out loud laughing under control. Elizabeth Banks and John Michael Higgens also provide a ton of laughs as the commentators for all the acapella singing competitions. The angsty hurt girl storyline fell a little flat with me, and I could have done without the entire storyline involving Beca and her father, but fortunately the music and the ensemble cast made up for it and I can’t wait to see it again. For now though I literally just sit and watch the trailer and the attached clips over and over again. If you haven’t seen it before you must watch the video below of the cast and fans singing Starships. It’s brilliant and I guarantee you can’t watch it only once.
If you like comedies and musicals I would say Pitch Perfect is a definite must see. Pitch Perfect opens in select cities on September 28th and everywhere on October 5.
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