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Fox’s hit TV show Glee has made singing cool again—and outrageous comedies like Bridesmaids have made chick flicks hip again. Put them together, and you’ve got the edgy aca-comedy of director Jason Moore’s debut feature, Pitch Perfect.
Barden University is known for its award-winning a cappella groups—especially the all-guys Treble Makers and the all-girls Barden Bellas. Last year, the Bellas made history by being the first all-girls group to make it to the ICCA finals at Lincoln Center—until an unfortunate mishap cut their performance short. Now, seniors Aubrey (Anna Camp) and Chloe (Brittany Snow) are ready to win it all—as long as they can find a group of supermodel-perfect singers to join them.
Freshman Beca (Anna Kendrick) dreams of moving to Los Angeles and starting a career in the music industry, but her professor dad is forcing her to give college (and all that it has to offer) a shot. To appease her dad, Beca joins the Bellas—but she soon becomes frustrated by straight-laced Aubrey’s refusal to try something new.
Though I didn’t jump on the Bridesmaids bandwagon like so many others did, I’m actually grateful for its box office success—because we wouldn’t have had the recent influx of female-focused comedies without it. For years, women have been subjected to an endless stream of lame chick flicks and sappy teen romances. But now, thanks to those brawling bridesmaids, we’ve gotten a handful of films with strong—and funny—female characters. Sure, Pitch Perfect comes complete with a story that’s fluffy and predictable, but it’s also a pleasantly surprising mix of quirky characters and music that will make you want to get up and dance in the aisles.
While the music gives the film its infectious energy, it’s the characters that make it fun to watch. Kendrick may be a little too cute to pull of the angsty tough-girl act, but she makes a strong and lovable lead nonetheless. And she’s not alone. While Camp’s Aubrey and her obnoxious Treble Makers counterpart, Bumper (Adam DeVine), are guaranteed to grate on your nerves, other characters—from low-talker Lilly (Hana Mae Lee) to the snarky and totally inappropriate competition commentators (Elizabeth Banks and John Michael Higgins)—add their own touches of humor. Really, though, it’s Rebel Wilson who steals the show (and often carries the film) as outrageous Aussie Fat Amy, whose boisterous one-liners and over-the-top antics make the movie more than just another fluffy chick flick about a bunch of girls who can sing.
Of course, Pitch Perfect still has its share of misses. At times, the film tries a little too hard to be edgy—especially in a couple of lengthy gross-out scenes. And the melodramatic would-be romance between Beca and charming Treble Maker Jesse (Skylar Astin) is, ironically enough, exactly the kind of predictable movie sap that Beca complains to Jesse about.
In the end, though, Pitch Perfect is an enjoyably geeky musical comedy that delivers catchy tunes and plenty of laughs. It never takes itself too seriously—and its lighthearted tone is sure to win over even the most cynical of viewers.
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