Pitch Perfect (2012)

Directed by Jason Moore. Starring Anna Kendrick, Skylar Astin, Anna Camp, Brittany Snow, Rebel Wilson, Ben Platt, Adam DeVine, Elizabeth Banks, John Michael Higgins, Hana Mae Lee, Alexis Knapp, Ester Dean, John Benjamin Hickey, Jinheel Joung, Freddie Stroma. [PG-13]

College freshman Kendrick, far more interested in pursuing a music career than getting involved in campus activities, reluctantly joins a competitive all-girl a cappella group to appease her dad (Hickey). Formula fluff with just enough of a weird edge to keep the lunch down (which is better than Camp’s character can manage…multiple times), but even while acknowledging that this is a movie about acappella singing, there’s still too much acappella singing; the arrangements are surprisingly mediocre, where the more modern and “adventurous” performances that finally see them reach their supposed potential are actually worse than the traditional “boring” ones (possibly a sly statement on the parts of the filmmakers, but highly unlikely). Kendrick’s inherent likability pays off, ultrasoft-spoken Lee scores a few abrupt laughs (“And do you guys wanna see a dead body?”), and even though it’s become an overworn element since Fred Willard in Best in Show, Higgins and Banks are funny as cheerfully inappropriate and derogatory commentators; most of the other cast members can be best described as “fungal.” Very uneven, but not without its defenders, which made the movie popular enough to spawn two sequels. Bit parts for, among others, Jo Lo Truglio, Jason Jones, and Donald Faison.

48/100