But this is the sort of comedy where you love the bad guys, like Anna Camp's Aubrey and Adam DeVine as the preening, overgrown infant who leads the Treblemakers.ĭirector Moore is a Broadway hand who can stage a number without assaulting the audience, and the soundtrack - which includes cast member Ester Dean doing a piece of Rihanna's "S&M," which Dean actually co-wrote - is a bit of heaven. The storyline? It's a bit of fluff about our untraditional heroine Beca's attempt to bring new life to The Bellas' moribund style and repertoire. She pares down jokes to their hilarious essence. She doesn't go in for convoluted hipster repartee in the vein of "Juno's" Diablo Cody. "Pitch Perfect" screenwriter Kay Cannon is an improv comedian who writes for "30 Rock" and "The New Girl," and my guess is she's so used to trying to top her colleagues in the writers' room that, left alone, she keeps topping herself. I do, I have that, as well.ĮDELSTEIN: That dialog is on the campy side, but it also has a core of pathos. WILSON: (as Amy) Well, at least it's not herpes. I just have to pull back, because I am limited, because I have nodes.ĬAMP: (as Aubrey) Chloe, this is horrible. I am living with nodes, but I am a survivor. SNOW: (as Chloe) The key is early diagnosis. REBEL WILSON: (as Amy) You should really listen to your doctor. It's like when my lady doctor told me not to have sex for six weeks, and I did it, anyway. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Isn't that painful? Why would you keep performing? They sit on your windpipe and they crush your veins. SNOW: (as Chloe) I found out this morning.ĬAMP: (as Aubrey) Vocal nodules, the rubbing together of your vocal chords at above average rates without proper lubrication. Chloe, for serious, what is wrong with you? Chloe, your voice didn't sound Aguilar-ian at all. The Bellas are run by the neurotically, over-controlled Aubrey, played by Anna Camp and her sidekick, Brittany Snow's Chloe, who explains to Aubrey, Beca, Fat Amy and other young women the problem with her voice.ĪNNA CAMP: (as Aubrey) I hope you all remember the way you feel right now, so you will never want to feel this way again. That's a great joke, a layer of humor over a world of hurt. And she ends up in the once-dominant, now-desperate The Bellas alongside the Australian actress, Rebel Wilson, as, quote, "Fat Amy," which is what Amy calls herself, so that, she explains, people won't do it behind her back. Beca wants to produce records instead of wasting time in college, and she's used to working alone, mixing songs on her computer, but she can sing. She's a freshman, Beca, played by that specialist and ever-prickly, ever-needy character's the ever-delightful Anna Kendrick. We're off and running and dancing and singing before the heroine even enters. Two ill-matched TV commentators do a running play-by-play, a device swiped from Christopher Guest's "Best in Show," but it's a hoot in its own right with Guest regular John Michael Higgins' boorish, misogynistic remarks met with acid rejoinders by Elizabeth Banks, who coproduced the movie. Then, an all-female group from the same fictional college, The Bellas, come on doing a mix of Ace of Base's "The Sign" that starts low energy and ends in calamity. It's borderline camp, but the harmonies are beautiful. At a regional final competition, an all-male group called the Treblemakers perform "Don't Stop the Music," and director Jason Moore and musical directors Ed Boyer and Deke Sharon get the tone just right. About a minute in, though, I started getting a beautiful buzz. "Pitch Perfect" features mixes of those pop hits new and old, and the actresses playing college kids are pushing 30. I hear enough overproduced, auto-tuned, generally vacuous mainstream pop thanks to my two daughters' penchant for New York's Clear Channel flagship station, Z100. Director Jason Moore is best known for his work on the satirical Broadway musical, "Avenue Q." Film critic David Edelstein has this review of "Pitch Perfect."ĭAVID EDELSTEIN, BYLINE: I wasn't looking forward - no, in truth, I was dreading the a cappella college musical comedy "Pitch Perfect." Mostly, I'm suffering from an overdose of "Glee," which has a similar setting, and I also dreaded the music. Actress Anna Kendrick was nominated for an Academy Award for her supporting role in "Up in the Air." Now she stars in the film musical, "Pitch Perfect," in which she plays a college freshman who reluctantly joins the school's illustrious all-female a cappella group.
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