First Take Classics: Pitch Perfect- the new kind of musical comedy

SYNOPSIS:

Beca, a freshman at Barden University, is cajoled into joining The Bellas, her school’s all-girls singing group. Injecting some much needed energy into their repertoire, The Bellas take on their male rivals in a campus competition.

When I seen this back in December 2012, I had no doubt that this would be a cult hit, especially as this was riding off the back of the success of Glee. But Jason Moore’s film did more than just become a success- it became a cult following, and that’s a very good indicator as to how audiences picked up this film.

Moore’s direction is spot on, delivering a nicely paced 1 hour 52 minute comedy that utilises a pretty damn good script from Kay Cannon to take the source material of Mickey Rapkin’s book and make it work incredibly well in the big screen environment, passing the 6 laugh test with relative ease. Add to that some decent cinematography from Julio Macat, and a very well arranged score from Mark Kilian and Christophe Beck, and you have a rare comedy that ticks the boxes technically.

Ultimately the characters are where the film excels, and we’re given plenty of them, portrayed brilliantly by the team of Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Anna Camp, Alexis Knapp, Hanna Mae Lee and Ester Dean- supporting them is Elizabeth Banks, Ben Platt, Skylar Astin and John Michael Higgins to name but a few; this is arguably a film targeted at the teenage market and quite rightly so, as it came out at just the right time to capitalise on the Twilight hype.

THE VERDICT

Pitch Perfect arguably set the standard for the modern teenage comedy, and it’s clear to see why, as the powers that be have just greenlit a sequel. Good god, let’s hope they can make a follow up that isn’t cliched to high heaven…

RATING- 4/5