Pitch Perfect

Pitch Perfect is  a chick flick about an all girl acapella singing group called the Bardem Bellas and their attempts to win a championship competition After a disastrous defeat at last year’s finals, they regroup in the new year and get five new members, including the main protagonist, Becca.

This is one of the major problems of the film – the lead character. She is boring and clichéd- the ‘bad girl’ who acts all tough and behaves like she doesn’t care, but eventually grows to love the nerds she is forced to hang around with for whatever reason.

We’ve seen this type of character a million times before in a million different chick flicks- why repeat a worn-out stereotype instead of coming up with something new and original that they could later be credited for?  Her relationship with her ‘DJ-ing is not a profession’ father is also very overdone.

However, the rest of the cast is brilliant, especially the comic relief characters of Fat Amy and Lilly- those two are the ones that make the movie. Rebel Wilson is a comedy genius  who should definitely continue to be in more chick flicks- she was hilarious in Bridesmaids and now having been given a bigger part as Fat Amy in this movie she completely steals the show. It also helps that they are supported by a brilliant script, meaning that when the jokes work, they really really work and it’s hysterical.

The other element that makes this movie as good as it is the music- they take songs that are popular with the target audience and remix them to make something totally unique – and it works fantastically. The musical numbers make for some of the best scenes- including the ‘Riff off’ where the acapella groups have a competition at the beginning of the year.

A possible reason for this movie's growing popularity amongst teenage girls is because it takes components we all love- it is a Glee-style format in a chick flick style-and it remixes into something new and unique enough to stand out and become a firm favourite with its target demographic.

On the other hand, Becca’s romance with Jesse, a member of rival acapella group the Trebletones, was not necessary and took up time that could have been spent on other characters and plot points- we could even have had more of Fat Amy- Rebel Wilson improvisations were cut out in many scenes to make room for said pointless romance and a lot of unnecessary scenes.

A final issue is that the film feels very short and it has no real depth to it- however, this doesn’t matter too much- if you just accept the film for what is – silly fun- it makes for a very fun watch.