Pitch Perfect (2012)

There are some movies which seem to fly underneath the radar and don’t get the attention they deserve. I hadn’t heard of Pitch Perfect before until I saw it reviewed on a fellow blogger’s site. I saw the poster and looked at the trailer (because I expected not to watch it) and really wasn’t sold on it. Then more positive reviews started coming in and I just couldn’t ignore the movie. Is it really perfect or slightly out of tune?

Pitch Perfect is a comedy which has been compared to Glee (a show I’ve never seen) a lot. It’s about the world of a capella competitions in which several groups battle it out using their own original renditions of old and new songs, mixed together. The Bellas have been competing for years and they manage to finally reach the finals when everything goes horribly wrong. Because of this they lose a lot of their singers and it’s up to the remaining two members to find replacements, which isn’t an easy task.

Beca (Anna Kendrick), a freshman at Barden University dreams about becoming a famous DJ and when she walks around campus is also asked to join, although she thinks is a pathetic thing to compete in, she eventually joins the group. It’s a band of misfits, there is one girl who talks so softly you really can’t understand her, one who’s constantly thinking about sex and some others. The standout of the group however is Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) who’s very secure about herself and had me laughing the most. Which such a wild group it’s hard for Aubrey (Anna Camp), the leader of the group, to get them to do everything the way she wants according to her strict rules. This, of course, leads to issues.

My expectations for this movie were not high at all, but I watched this smiling and laughing all through the movie. The comedy is funny and the renditions of various songs amazing and extremely catchy as I kept humming them days after I saw this film. There is a real chemistry between the various actresses and they act out their stereotypical characters perfectly.

The movie is mainly about the singing, but adds enough other small stories to keep it all interesting (the rivalry with the other groups, Beca and her relationship with her father or with Jesse (Skylar Astin)). It seems that gross out scenes are a must for every comedy and this movie also has two of those scenes. I happened to be in the right mood for them and was in stitches, but I can imagine not everyone will like them. Still, this was one of the biggest surprises of 2012 for me, just like 21 Jump Street was and if you are looking for a very funny comedy you need to check out Pitch Perfect.