Pitch Perfect
2012, PG-13, 112 min. Directed by Jason Moore. Starring Anna Kendrick, Brittany Snow, Rebel Wilson, Skylar Astin, Ben Platt, Anna Camp, Adam DeVine, Elizabeth Banks, John Michael Higgins.
REVIEWED By Kimberley Jones, Fri., Sept. 28, 2012
If you’re at all predisposed to the choreographed karaoke of Glee, the underdog schematics of teen competitions à la Bring It On or the Step Up cycle, and the hero-misfits of a John Hughes comedy, then this slight but sunny entertainment is something of an idiot-grin-maker.
Anna Kendrick (age 27) and the reliably outré comic Rebel Wilson (age 26) stretch the limits of the imagination as members of an incoming college freshmen class. The perennially perky Kendrick plays Beca, a kohl-rimmed angerpuss who’d rather be mashing tracks than attending Intro to Psych. Still, she finds a community of sorts with Wilson’s Fat Amy – when asked by a lithe blond why she calls herself "Fat Amy," she smirks, “So twig bitches like you don’t do it behind my back” – and a cookie-cutter dysfunctional, all-girls a cappella group. One soft-spoken singer, played by Hana Mae Lee, shares the same DNA as the Muppets’ Beaker, but underneath her “meep-meep” are snort-inducing confessions like “I set fires to feel joy.” One wishes the filmmakers had found room for more rough-edged oddities as this and spent less time borrowing goodwill from The Breakfast Club (and so soon after Easy A pulled the same act). All told, Pitch Perfect isn’t all that good – but it’s an awfully good sport.
A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.
Trace Sauveur, Jan. 27, 2023
Kimberley Jones, Dec. 18, 2015
April 19, 2024
April 19, 2024
Pitch Perfect, Jason Moore, Anna Kendrick, Brittany Snow, Rebel Wilson, Skylar Astin, Ben Platt, Anna Camp, Adam DeVine, Elizabeth Banks, John Michael Higgins