Pitch Perfect (2012)

Film: Pitch Perfect (2012)
Stars: Anna Kendrick, Skylar Astin, Ben Platt, Brittany Snow, Anna Camp, Rebel Wilson
Director: Jason Moore
Oscar History: No nominations (Rebel Wilson did score a BFCA nomination, however)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

Anyone remember last year, when Bridesmaids and The Help came out, and suddenly everyone was chatting about making female-centric films and how studios weren't going to leave women behind at the Box Office anymore?  You'd be forgiven for forgetting this, since clearly studio heads did-I know it's only one year, but you can't tell me that they couldn't have quickly greenlit more female-centric movies to counter the Summer of the Superhero (Iron Man and Spider-Man and Batman...oh my!).  Thankfully, for both moviegoers and Universal, Pitch Perfect was that sole counterbalance, became a hit, and is an insistently addictive movie that plays just as well on video as the big screen.

The film revolves around Beca (Kendrick), a college freshman who desperately wants to move to Los Angeles to become a record producer.  She's the child of divorce, and is too-cool-for-school, and you already know this character by heart at the beginning, as she's brimming with cliches, but thankfully the casting director had the foresight to hire the delightful Anna Kendrick as his chief player, who breathes life into this character where most actresses wouldn't have been able to find a unique rhthym for the character.  For starters, she's a complete nerd, something that Kendrick's performance revels in-she's into music mixing and has a penchant for singing, something that comes into play when the leader of a failed a capella group catches her singing in the shower and demands that she try out for her group.  Of course, the group needs her to mix things up a bit and bring the group out of the last century and in with the new, as the group's routines are staid and boring until Beca comes in and introduces them to mash-ups and stronger routines.

If this is sounding like an episode of Glee, but on the big screen, you might be forgiven, but unlike the Ryan Murphy series, this show isn't really about struggling with the hardships of high school and bullying-this is primarily about celebrating your place in the niche you belong in-Beca clearly revels in joining the a capella group, and like all of the characters in the film, is strongly confident in herself.  Her love interest, Skylar Astin, is an aspiring cinematic composer, and while his reliance on The Breakfast Club for inspiration seems a bit of a counter to the plot of the film (which largely seems to reject the idea of the 1980's as an artistic inspiration), Astin's adorkable character (seriously-where are these uber-cute and nerdy guys in real life?) is so easy to crush on, you forgive him his rather boring favorite movies.

While Kendrick and Astin are both great, the film, for anyone who spends longer than ten minutes watching, belongs to Rebel Wilson.  Wilson, whom you may remember from a bit part as Kristen Wiig's roommate in last summer's Bridesmaids, plays the randy and completely spontaneous Fat Amy (a name that she embraces rather than admonishes).  It's hard to tell where Fat Amy ends and Wilson begins, but you're going to be laughing so hard that you won't care.  Seriously-there were times when I'm certain I lost several minutes of the movie because I could not stop laughing at Wilson's ridiculously inappropriate one-liners.  Every time that she comes onto screen, you are inwardly giggling in anticipation of what is to come next.  Wilson, who is clearly an emerging star, will be interesting to place in upcoming films (as people will want her to constantly be playing this vein of character), but this woman has star charisma to the hilt and I cannot wait for what comes next.

The film does have its fault-not all of the eccentric side characters have the pure watchability of Wilson's Fat Amy, and in particular, Hana Mae Lee's squeaky-voiced Lilly's act wears thin really, really quickly and though it's always welcome to see John Benjamin Hickey (Beca's father) show up, Beca is too Gen Y and too self-aware to really be believed as an affected child of divorce.  But overall, this is a wildly fun movie with a soundtrack that you're going to want to instantly go out to iTunes to buy.

What'd you think of the film?  What do you think of Wilson's future as an actress?  And do you, like me, think Kristen Stewart would gladly switch careers with Anna Kendrick?