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Pitch Perfect
Dec. 22nd, 2015 07:57 pmAt last I have seen Pitch Perfect! I say "at last" because, (1), people have been recommending this movie to me more or less since it came out, and (2) the DVD has been waiting patiently in its Netflix envelope for going on three months now before my brother and I finally got it together to watch it.
(I must confess that one of the reasons it's taken me so long is that I heard about the vomiting scene beforehand. It's not as bad as I imagined, but still, it seems unnecessary. No one ever watched a movie and said, "This is good, but it needs more gratuitous vomiting.")
And I did like it, although I was a little puzzled that it became such a phenomenon, because it's fun and the songs are catchy but it's basically two-dimensional. There are so many characters that the movie didn't even have time to establish all of their names, let alone give them backstories or motivations. The main conflict in the movie is between Aubrey Posen, the a cappella group president who wants to stick with the traditional set list (right down to surprisingly eighties performance clothes, complete with little neck scarves), and...well, really the entire rest of the group, but most of all Beca, all of whom know that the group needs to diversify if it's going to compete.
Why is Aubrey so obsessed with clinging to the Bellas' old a cappella traditions? And why are all the club members willing to put up with their out-of-touch martinet of a leader? We never do find out. Beca, the main character, is fleshed out a little, but she's the only one. There's simply no time for everyone else.
The movie would have been stronger if it had been more focused. In particular, it could have freed up a lot of much-needed space by cutting almost all of the parts focusing on the boys' a cappella group. They're the Bellas main rivals and their leader is a grade A douche: that's all we really need to know about them. Even Beca's romance (cute though it was) could have been cut. Beca's confession near the end that the Bellas were her first group of female friends would have had a lot more weight if we'd seen more of her friendship with them.
My theory is that there are so few movies about female friendship in the first place that people fall on the few that do exist like water in the desert, even if they leave much to be desired. Like, say, actual development for those friendships.
(I must confess that one of the reasons it's taken me so long is that I heard about the vomiting scene beforehand. It's not as bad as I imagined, but still, it seems unnecessary. No one ever watched a movie and said, "This is good, but it needs more gratuitous vomiting.")
And I did like it, although I was a little puzzled that it became such a phenomenon, because it's fun and the songs are catchy but it's basically two-dimensional. There are so many characters that the movie didn't even have time to establish all of their names, let alone give them backstories or motivations. The main conflict in the movie is between Aubrey Posen, the a cappella group president who wants to stick with the traditional set list (right down to surprisingly eighties performance clothes, complete with little neck scarves), and...well, really the entire rest of the group, but most of all Beca, all of whom know that the group needs to diversify if it's going to compete.
Why is Aubrey so obsessed with clinging to the Bellas' old a cappella traditions? And why are all the club members willing to put up with their out-of-touch martinet of a leader? We never do find out. Beca, the main character, is fleshed out a little, but she's the only one. There's simply no time for everyone else.
The movie would have been stronger if it had been more focused. In particular, it could have freed up a lot of much-needed space by cutting almost all of the parts focusing on the boys' a cappella group. They're the Bellas main rivals and their leader is a grade A douche: that's all we really need to know about them. Even Beca's romance (cute though it was) could have been cut. Beca's confession near the end that the Bellas were her first group of female friends would have had a lot more weight if we'd seen more of her friendship with them.
My theory is that there are so few movies about female friendship in the first place that people fall on the few that do exist like water in the desert, even if they leave much to be desired. Like, say, actual development for those friendships.
