"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Pitch Perfect (2012, PG-13)

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

Swearing, sexual content (included a masturbation reference and an implied sex scene,) drinking and drug references, and some blecchhh gross-out humor.

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