Pitch Perfect

Title: Pitch Perfect

Year: 2012

Director: Jason Moore

Rating: PG-13 for sexual material, language and drug references

Synopsis: Arriving at her new college, Beca finds herself not right for any clique but somehow is muscled into one that she never would have picked on her own: alongside mean girls, sweet girls and weird girls whose only thing in common is how good they sound when they sing together. When Beca leads this a cappella singing group out of their traditional arrangement and perfect harmonies into all-new mash-ups, they fight to climb their way to the top of the college music competitions.

Official Page and IMDb Page

Official Trailer

STEPH SAID

Rating:

Review:

First of all, he trailer makes it seem like the movie is about an old fashioned acapella group that is getting a makeover by a new member: Beca. It is not about this. Beca tries to help the group but she is constantly being put down.

The story develops swiftly. Beca, unwillingly enrolls for a college education at Barden University and, after making a deal with her dad, decides to join the all-girl a capella group called The Barden Bellas. Beca is always trying to improve upon the Bellas, but she never succeeds. And Aubrey is to blame; the captain of the Bellas wants her girls to stay old-school, and there is no changing her mind.

The Trebletones, also from Barden University, are the rock stars of the a cappella groups. But, besides them the groups are pretty mediocre. The Bellas are the ones that suck the less; therefore, they keep advancing until they reach the semi-finals.

In between of competitions and musical numbers the personal life of Beca is developed. Her relationship with Jesse is lovely. Well, he makes it lovely. One time she overreacted because of something he did. I couldn’t understand; he was only trying to help. I was ready to take one star off of the movie's rating. But Beca then admitted to her overreacting and asked for forgiveness, and I forgave her.

This movie was music to my ears, literally and figuratively. It has a really good balance between musical numbers and spoken drama. I loved both parts equally. If I were to choose which I liked more, the musical numbers or the spoken development of the story, I wouldn’t be able to decide. In fact, from my two favorite parts of the movie, one is a spoken scene between the somewhat romance triangle: Beca, Jesse and Luke; and the other is a musical number: the riff-off.

In one scene Jesse was goofing around with Beca, trying to charm her with his cheerful personality. Luke noticed and decided to interrupt (maybe because he fancies Beca too or maybe just ‘cause) and sent Jesse to buy lunch. Jesse, trying to put Luke down, tells him to stop eating hamburgers, "you won’t be 22 forever". In reply, Luke lifts up his shirts revealing a six-pack and says he thinks he is ok. Beca agrees; To Jesse’s dismay.  Now, what I loved about the scene was Jesse's comment afterwards: "And the chess match continues..."

The riff-off, my favorite part of the movie, is a musical competition between the a capella groups of the Barden University. You can see  how great it was in the next video.

It was funny and comforting to see people in movies go through the same struggles regular people go through. Like, for example, having to “fight” with someone that is sexier, hotter or prettier than you for the girl, and you can only count in your personality.

  

Another thing I loved about the movie was the casting. Usually, in Hollywood movies created for a young audience, the cast is beautiful and/or hot. In this movie the cast is varied; more realistic. Some actors were pretty, some were hot, some were average looking but some were real dorks. (That kinda rimed-- not on purpose.)

I didn’t give it five stars because the ending felt rushed. Aubrey was always over controlling about the Bellas performances; always using the same old songs and choreography. Then, all of a sudden, she decided to change and let Beca take control of the final performance. Also, after the last performance, the movie cuts to the future, so you don’t get a sense of closure or celebration because you can’t see the announcement of the winners, the awards being presented or the teams celebrating. The viewer only gets a peak at next year’s auditions in which the winning team has the trophy on their table. That’s it. It was disappointing and left me wanting more; it felt like the movie wasn’t long enough, even though it lasts two hours.