Pitch Perfect. Apt.

The Olympics is a fascinating time. While normally the general public has no interest in badminton, or pole vaulting, or that weird horse-dancing thing, once every four years we come together and watch the best in the world do their thing and appreciate it. It's unfortunate that cinema has no equivalent of the Olympics, as I think it's high time some people got off their high horse (Weird and dancing or otherwise) and gave the terrific Pitch Perfect a look. While on first glance it's easy to dismiss it as part of the whole Glee-High School Musical-Nonsense phenomenon, it's only upon watching Pitch Perfect that you can appreciate how smart the film is. A witty deconstruction of the genre with dialogue so sharp you worry at least one of the actors cut their tongue. I love Pitch Perfect and this is why.


It probably helped that I had an infatuation with Anna Kendrick coming in. Having fallen for her in small, supporting roles such as Scott Pilgrim Vs The World and Twilight (I hold she's the best thing in any of the 4 films she's in), it was the desire to see her in a leading role that brought me into the cinema. She, of course, excels, brilliantly engaging as ever. She narrowly dodges her chatty girl typecasting and continues to hold the film together. A skill normally only appreciated in poor or average films, Kendrick's ability to hold the movie up by the scruff of its neck and keep the audience onside prevents it ever risking becoming a tired gag reel with intermittent singing. Her lack of flamboyance then allows for Rebel Wilson's Fat Amy to come along as steal the show. Wilson is very funny, and there's little more to it than that. Her delivery of the scripted gags is fittingly pitch perfect. The real cream on the cake, however, are the improvised scenes. "I'm the best singer in Tasmania... with teeth". While I normally tire of 90 minute Judd Appatow improv wastelands, Wilson has a Jonah Hill-esque ability to churn out sudden laugh-out-loud funny moments that I'm sure she'll carev a career around, just as Hill has. Credit must also be given to first-time director Jason Moore for knowing when to stick and when to twist when it came to including her improvisations. The film never feels bagging, moving on just as we grow used to but before we tire of the last scene.

The real joy in the film is its self-awareness. There's a joke in the last 20 minutes or so where Anna Camp's character is berating the assembled cast individually, then gets to two characters we've never seen before and says "It's like you haven't even been here the whole time!", a poke at Glee's knack of adding extra backing dancers never scene in the meat of the show. It's to bubblegum musicals what Scream or Cabin in the Woods were to horror, yet it lacks the recognition those films garnered. Actually, perhaps the work of Edgar Wright would be a closer comparison, a loving homage of a genre movie. Whilst playing the bromidic features straight, it recognises them and crafts its humour around them. To say this is the Hot Fuzz of musicals is high praise, and considering Wright is the man I would point to as my current favourite filmmaker above all else, even more so. While some have complained that, in the end, it chooses not to subvert the clichéd Hollywood ending, I think that's to the films credit. Instead, it nails the big, rousing finish. We care about the characters, which is a must, so to see them achieve all they want is oh so satisfying. Feel-good films live and die on the strength of their ending, so it's always great to see one that pulls it off. I'm not going to lie- I have now seen the film three times, and all three I shed a little tear as the Barton Bellas nailed their final performance.

When I watch Pitch Perfect, I see a genre at its peak. I see a high school musical that I don't see ever being bettered. I think it's actually that good. Yet while people are willing to give the steeplechase their attention once every four years, they're not going to peer into a type of film outside their common comfort zone and embrace it for what it is. A masterpiece within its own walls, about as good a film as it possibly could have been. A film I am willing to defend and champion until the end of days and one I will not stop until everybody has seen.