Finally
dipping my toes into this franchise. It
was only a matter of time – I mean, female friendships, copious amounts of
singing and dancing, woman-driven stories, and Utkarsh Ambudkar? Come on.
Although, ultimately, I’m not quite
as fond of it as I hoped I’d be, it’s a lot of fun, and I plan to see the
sequel posthaste, before it leaves theaters.
Beca
isn’t crazy about the whole liberal-arts-education thing. She wants nothing more than to move to L.A.
and start working her way up to producing music, but her professor father wants
her to get a degree and the “college experience” that goes along with it. At his insistence that she join one campus
activity, she winds up with the Bellas, one of several a cappella groups at the
university but the only all-female one.
The Bellas are in serious need of a reboot, coming off of a major
last-season disaster and near-total member loss after the previous year’s
graduation. However, despite the new
Bella crew’s body, style, and genre diversity, tightly-wound group leader
Aubrey clings insistently to the tired, staid routines that just aren’t working
anymore. Beca’s more inventive ideas
clash with Aubrey’s adherence to “tradition,” and the group becomes a warzone
of opposing beliefs about what it’ll take to be a hit at competition.
I think
my main issue with the movie is this central conflict. Narratively, it works and makes sense for
both characters involved; there’s no question that it makes for good, clear
story drama. The problem is that the
trailers offer up the promise of a bunch of talented young women tearing it up
with their badass vocal harmonies, and while that definitely happens, and it’s awesome, there’s way less of that than I
would’ve liked (to make room for repeated scenes of the group performing Aubrey’s
single, listless number,) which makes me feel a little gypped. Surely there would’ve been a way to maintain
that differing set-list stance while incorporating a bit more show
stoppage. I also think that, for much of
the film, the Bella bonding is slightly more tell than show, and there’s a
little too much Catty Bitch stuff for my taste.
Aside
from those complaints, it’s a pretty great movie. The story’s tight, the dialogue’s sharp and
bitingly funny, and, with the exception of Aubrey’s recycled routines, all the
music performances are excellent. The
major Bellas (and some of the supporting ones) are nicely varied, bringing
different types of humor to the film. I
like that they can be funny, gross, driven, smart, crude, talented, stubborn,
and confident. When you get down to it,
it’s about women who work for what they want, who learn to collaborate and use
their assorted talents in tandem, and I’m all about that.
As
Beca, Anna Kendrick is very rootable and in great voice. Anna Camp is note-perfect as the incredibly
Type A Aubrey, and Brittany Snow’s amusing performance is worth a mention as
well. On the gents’ side, we have Skylar
Astin (Spring Awakening alum!) and,
as I said above, the terrific Utkarsh Ambudkar (Mindy’s brother Rishi on The Mindy Project, and even cooler, he’s
in a freestyle hip-hip troupe with Lin-Manuel Miranda – love it.) Not bad at all!
Warnings
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