Pitch Perfect (2012) Movie Review

I've been having a bad week, but I'm happy to report that Pitch Perfect lifted my spirits. The film defied my moderate expectations and gave me a satisfying comedy that never took itself too seriously. 

The film centers around The Barden Bellas, a made up university's a Capella group, as they try to recruit new members after a previous disaster at their national competition. It follows the main character Becca, a cool, isolated mixer chick, as she reluctantly joins the Bellas and learns to make new acquaintances and fit in with college life. There are a lot of story elements that I won't divulge; it's best to go into this movie pretty clean. 

Pitch Perfect is hands down the most hilarious movie I've seen since another female-driven comedy, last year's Bridesmaids. It contains a lot of smart, intelligent humor--the type of humor that I particularly enjoy in singular comedies. There are, of course, also some obligatory gross-out gags and crude humor, but luckily they only amount to about 5% of the jokes. I like how some of the humor is dependant on how much you pay attention to the background of certain scenes -- you could totally miss it if you're focusing on the actors' faces. The cast is a big part of what makes the comedy so great-- each member of the Bellas is a side character, yet they each share a good amount of screen time which allows their personalities to develop to the point that you care about their specific types of jokes. 

There's a bit of a romance thrown in here that bogs down the film in my opinion. I find it frustrating how every comedy nowadays feels the need to throw in a romance just to appeal to more of an audience. I feel like if you're going to put that in a comedy, then you should do it well, and while the relationship between Becca and rival a Capella singer Jesse is cute-- it begins to spiral into cliches after awhile. 

Lastly I'd like to mention that the actual a Capella performances in the film are fun and exciting. I'm seriously considering buying the soundtrack; it's just so captivating to hear how the different a Capella groups shown throughout the movie put their own spin on each song, making it uniquely theirs. There are also a lot of mash-ups in the movie (meaning that two or more songs are morphed together to form one, continuous beat), which are also great. As a huge Glee fan, I can say that the musical performances here are pretty well done, some more so than the likes of Glee (and you know that's a big thing for me to say). 

Bottom line, you should go see Pitch Perfect if you're in the mood for a rich, smart comedy. The musical performances are not numerous enough that it gets boring, so there's just the right amount of energy. The film moves along at a brisk pace, so it's 1 hr 50 minute running time goes by pretty quickly. If the romance in the film were more developed (or, better yet, not there at all), then this film would've received a higher score. 

However, I give Pitch Perfect an 8.0/10. Go see it :)