“Pitch Perfect” Review: An Unoriginal Musical Comedy That’s Still Fabulous

Pitch Perfect
Pitch Perfect
Pitch Perfect is out in all theaters October 5. | Promotional poster courtesy of Universal Pictures

Watching Pitch Perfect is like watching a regurgitation of Glee and House Bunny, with a dash of Bring it On and Mean Girls, minus the pom-poms and the beloved Regina George. Feeding on stereotypes of college life and musical fads, it’s blatantly unoriginal yet absolutely fantastic.

Pitch Perfect is director Jason Moore’s full-length film debut. It centers around angsty loner Beca (Anna Kendrick) finding herself as a Barden University freshman when all she wants to do is DJ in L.A. for a living. At the same time she’s rolling onto campus, seniors Chloe (Brittany Snow) and Audrey (Anna Camp) are desperately trying to rebuild the Barden Bellas, a female a cappella group that’s fallen apart after a stomach-tossing (literally) Nationals performance the previous spring. Under Chloe’s persistence, Beca hesitantly becomes a Bella along with a slew of oddballs such as Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) and the silent pyromaniac Lily (Hana Mae Lee). Together, they face off against their cross-campus foes The Treblemakers–whose newest member Jesse (Skyler Astin) is obviously infatuated with a very oblivious Beca–eventually overcoming their underdog status and a 50s-genre setlist to once again rule the collegiate vocal scene.

In a slew of plot clichés (Forbidden love! Stereotypical college life! Daddy issues!), Pitch Perfect isn’t for the faint-at-Sundance-Festival-hearts. But for anyone who’s up for a good laugh, Rebel Wilson’s first comedic performance since Bridesmaids will surely suffice. While Kendrick plays the lead character, Wilson dominates the screen with Fat Amy’s dry one-liners and solitary disposition (“You guys are gonna get pitch-slapped so hard, your man boobs are gonna concave”), making an otherwise predictable film more distinctive.

By themselves, each character is unique and intriguing. Camp flawlessly pulls off the Type A wack-job Audrey (“acca-‘scuse me?”), as Snow does the heartfelt and quirky Chloe, Astin as Jesse, the adorable love-interest who can’t cut a break, and so on. Together, the cast has great chemistry in which one character always seems to balance out another.

Of course, we can’t forget the music, which was the best part of the film. For anyone shying away from Pitch Perfect because they’re not into characters randomly breaking out in song, don’t. Moore, a Tony Award nominee for Best Director of a Musical (Avenue Q, 2004), knows that the time and place for that kind of thing is on stage versus on set. Furthermore, each mash-up is composed with impeccable harmony, adding new twists to overplayed Top 40 songs, and the choreography meshes well into Pitch Perfect‘s performance aspect.

No one will walk out of the theater after Pitch Perfect gaining anything substantial, but how many movies actually do that these days? Pitch Perfect has an optimal combination of crude humor, musical talent, and memorable punchlines going for it. So go ahead–bust out laughing and relish Anna Kendrick and Brittany Snow’s auto-tuned harmony–and have an “acca-awesome” time.

“Pitch Perfect” hits theaters nation-wide on October 5. For more information, visit the official site here.

About Yasmin Gentry

Yasmin Gentry (COM, CAS '16) hails from Chicagoland and studies communications and philosophy at BU. Aside from her love of writing about nothing at all in particular for the Quad, Yasmin appreciates a good cup of Earl Grey, cheers on the Chicago Blackhawks, and loves running around the Charles.

View all posts by Yasmin Gentry →

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