Pitch Perfect
[youtube=http://youtu.be/F03N-ApQdmw]
Tagline: Get pitched slapped.
Remember when Up In the Air came out a few years ago and, due to the early buzz, it almost seemed nonsensical to hold that year’s Academy Awards, such was the ease in which George Clooney et al were going to waltz off with every nomination that came its way? As it turned out, Jason Reitman’s movie ended up going 0-6, and probably undeservedly so. Anna Kendrick, as eager young downsizer Natalie Keener, was easily the best thing the film had going for it (and may well have won the award for Best Supporting Actress if voting hadn’t split between her and her castmate Vera Farmiga).
In Pitch Perfect, Kendrick is out of the supporting category and into the leading role as Beca, a woman who is somehow able to bring together all sorts of college types – mean girls, sweet girls, weird girls – and meld them into an a cappella group. But is it simply Glee-lite or can Pitch Perfect carry a tune?
The omens are good: first-time director Jason Moore is best known for staging the riotous Avenue Q on Broadway, and the script is courtesy of Kay Cannon (30 Rock, New Girl) which should at least guarantee some semblance of originality. And thankfully for Moore, Cannon, Kendrick and the enthusiastic cast (especially Rebel Wilson), Time Out New York‘s somewhat snarky notice (“This film could have done with a few more mouth beats and unlikely moments of extracurricular celebrity”) is pretty much the only flat note out there. Variety states that “conventional though it may be, Pitch Perfect feels like a labor of love through and through,” while the Hollywood Reporter reports that it’s “an enjoyably snarky campus romp that’s both wildly nerdy and somewhat sexy.” A cause for glee, indeed.
LIST: Anna Kendrick’s Great Performance in Up in the Air
NewsFeed’s Flicks Pick: Another solid week at the movies. Perhaps Pitch Perfect would make for the perfect opening act to the headlining Looper?