Theatre and Movie Reviews
January 2013
Pitch
Perfect. Odeon Greenwich
Tuesday
1st January. 2013
I decided on
members ‘tight arse Tuesday’ at Odeon, I would attend the feel-good movie Pitch
Perfect where the singing
was none other than, perfectly pitched. I wasn’t sure what I was in for but assumed
it would a Glee like
movie, which it is, only wittier, sharper, ruder and more sarcastic. Avenue
Q’s Jason Moore, directs
Pitch Perfect, a comedy
set in Barden University with various a capella groups who perform much like a
high school glee club except there is no backing band and all the sounds come
from the mouth. Not having seen the flick Bridesmaids, I have not encountered Australian
comedian Rebel Wilson who plays Fat Amy. One of the first lines she utters is,
that she is from Tasmania and performed in Fiddler On The Roof with aboriginals, noting that it was very
Jewish. From then on, I was hooked line and sinker and in true Ozzie style she
steals the movie with her ‘say it like it is’ one-liners. The female warblers
the ‘Bellas’ take on their male counterpart the ‘Treblemakers’ and in true
fashion they go through the ropes of regionals, semi-finals then the final
competition. New college student Beca (Anna Kendrick) is a straight faced, out
of sorts, would be DJ who spends her time mashing up tunes, dreaming of making
it big in LA but eventually uses her passion to take the group to the finals.
The ‘Bellas’ are used to performing safe but standard routines singing ballads,
which puts everyone to sleep, until Beca comes on the scene with the intention
of updating the group. The music in the film is a blend of current and recent
pop mashed up tunes as are the dance moves, meaning this film will soon be out of
date. Like Glee the
film has characters that are weird and whacky but the perfect comedy duo, John
Michael Higgins and Elizabeth Banks team up as the commentary for the
competitions. A light frothy way to take away the blues, this film can put a
smile on your dial.
