I’ve never been a singer, and I admire anyone who can sing or who can at least get up in front of others. But I do not admire the creators of Pitch Perfect one single bit. The movie turned the creative style of a cappella into an obnoxious whine of raunchy jokes, and not even the good kind of raunchy. This movie’s humor was crude and unnecessary.
Pitch Perfect is about feuding a cappella groups at a university where all anyone seems to do is sing and dance spontaneously and never go to class. The story is centered around Beca, played by Anna Kendrick, who only wants to move to Los Angeles and deejay for the rest of her life. She wears dark makeup, gives everyone a look as if she just smelled something bad, and instantly hates anyone who tries to make friends with her. Not a likable main character at all. Once she joins the Bellas (the all-female a cappella group at university), she starts to open up, and then we realize that her personality is just stupid. She simply just does not have common sense.
The easily forgettable characters would constantly use phrases like:
“A ca-whatever!”
“A ca-awesome!”
“A ca-perfect!”
“A ca-awkward.”
And I just wanted to tell them to a ca-shut up! The writers of Pitch Perfect had more fun with the word “a cappella” than I’ve had in my whole life. Except that when I have fun, it’s not stupid.
The only possible redeeming quality of Pitch Perfect would be the character of Fat Amy, played by Rebel Wilson. Fat Amy does eccentric things, like deem her haircut “The Orthodox Jew” and call herself fat because she claims she knows that’s what everyone calls her behind her back. Wilson steals every scene she’s in (although no other actors were even in reaching distance).
To give an example as to how unenjoyable my moviegoing experience was, I got splashed with Sprite halfway into the movie and found that more enjoyable than the entire 112 minutes of Pitch Perfect. If you enjoy unintelligent and tasteless humor, this is the movie for you. If not, go watch Perks of Being a Wallflower. It’s beautiful.