PITCH PERFECT
US, 2012, 112 minutes, Colour.
Anna Kendrick, Skylar Astin, Brittany Snow, Anna Camp, Rebel Wilson.
Directed by Jason Moore.
This is a very cheerful film.
Pitch perfect refers to the musical term of getting the right note just right. Very important for a cappella singing groups. And this is what the film is about: a cappella, singing, competitions. There is a lot of singing all the way through the film, quite entertaining. Those breakdance and step up films created crazes and competitions in real life. Maybe Pitch Perfect will be the impetus for groups to be established and the staging of competitions. They would involve a lot more participants, with more people being comfortable and able as they sing rather than attempting dance gymnastics. That wouldn’t be a bad thing.
Taking the word pitch with another meaning, referring to the way that a potential film is presented to producers and backers, the pitch for Perfect Pitch would not have been an easy one. A movie about college a cappella groups?! Taking its cue from a non-fiction book on this theme, the film is not just about singing, it is a pitch for women singing and competing. A chauvinist leader of the men’s group, The Treble-makers, offers the opinion that women can’t compete because they can’t reach the low-pitched notes. The final competition, of course, puts paid to that theory.
The audience is urged to think about all these issues through the device of having a pair of media commentators at each competition. The style is straight out of Best in Show with John Michael Higgins of that film performing the role that Fred Willard did so well. He is given some outrageously sexist lines and is finally accused of being misogynist by his co-compere, Elizabeth Banks, who can give as good as she gets.
Meanwhile, this is a story about Beca going to college whereas she wants to go to LA to be a music producer. After pressure from her father, she joins the Barden Bellas, the college a cappella women’s group. They are a motley crew, trying to build on their disaster (well, their controlling leader’s disaster) at the previous year’s finals. There is humour in Anna Camp’s tall blonde fascist leader. And there is more humour in the participation of Rebel Wilson as Fat Amy (she calls herself to save others calling her this behind her back). Rebel Wilson, from Sydney and here playing a Tasmanian, has been a standout in A Few Best Men, Bridesmaids, What to Expect When You’re Expecting and Bachelorette. She has quite a few funny lines and situations and audiences warm to her.
Jesse (Skylar Astin) joins the Treble-makers, works with Beca at the college radio station and is attracted to her. She, however, is rather glacial in the relationship department. This is another good turn from Anna Kendrick (appearing in 2012 in 50/50, What to Expect When You’re Expecting and End of Watch).
Because this is a pleasant film, clashes don’t lead to disaster but to friendships and success.
Pitch Perfect is a pleasant surprise.
1. A cheerful film? Joy and exuberance? Music, choirs? Song?
2. The college story, the groups, the students, the dormitories? The blend of the real and the fairytale? Carolina settings? The university? Lincoln Centre?
3. The range of the score, the range of different performances, interpretations, lyrics and choreography?
4. The songs pervading the film, rehearsals, competitions, performances? The individuals, their gifts, working as a team, collaboration, the diva personalities, tensions, working together?
5. The introduction to the Treble Makers, Bumper, his self-confidence, their performance, winning? The introduction to the Bellas, Aubrey, her leadership, the vomiting and audience reaction? The sense of failure?
6. The commentators, their dialogue, the parody, the misogyny, the ironic remarks? Punctuating the film?
7. Beca, arriving in the cab, seeing Jesse singing? Her roommate, laconic? Her father working at the university, his pressure on her to stay at the university, his promise that she could leave at the end of the year if she wished?
8. The groups in the grounds? The parody of the Deaf Jews? The various pitches made? Jesse and his roommate Benji (and the magic)? The choirs, Fat Amy and her response to the Bellas?
9. The audition sequence, the range, Beca being persuaded to come – after Chloe and the encounter in the shower?
10. College life, not seeing any classes, the rooms, the radio, the stacking of the CDs, the disc jockey, the tension between Jesse and Beca?
11. The Bellas, the choice, the oaths? The Treble Makers and the antipathy between the two groups? Aubrey, her personality, her control, her talking about her father and failure? Her expelling people who did not live up to her rules?
12. The practices, the style, the hands together, one two three? The build-up to the regional competition, the failure?
13. The scene with the groups and their riffing off each other, the range of songs, the popularity, responses?
14. The Bellas and the personalities? Aubrey, bland yet in control? Chloe, the shower, the nodules on her vocal cords? The voiceless girl? Fat Amy and the comic touches, the exercises, cardio? The black lesbian? The glamorous girl? Their interactions and jokes?
15. The Treble Makers, Bumper, the misogyny, Jesse and his place in the group, leading, Bumper and his going to Los Angeles, the group’s reaction, Benji and his being invited in – and his performance at the final competition?
16. Beca, changing, with her father, their talk, the DJ and his letting her be a DJ during the vacation? The rehearsals, the vomiting, the comic touches with the voiceless girl falling? Aubrey and her being challenged? Beca leaving, returning, her becoming the leader? The choices of the songs, the choreography – and not just simply repeating the past?
17. Beca and Jesse, her being hard, his wanting to educate her in videos, The Breakfast Club and the final song, her alienating him? At Lincoln Centre? His performance with Benji? Her using the song from The Breakfast Club (after watching it and shedding a tear)? The reconciliation?
18. Lincoln Centre, the humorous commentators, the performances, exuberance?
19. The year starting again, the auditions – and the Bellas having achieved their success?
