Not even kidding: I have watched this movie at least four five times in the last two weeks. I couldn't even not watch it in between writing this blog post and finishing this blog post. This movie is nearly perfect.
Issues:
Wonderful things:
The best part about this movie is obviously the soundtrack, because, like, good god, my friends, some of these songs, like, I wanted to punch myself in the face because it was just WAY TOO AWESOME. Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:
Exhibit C:
Anyway, pulling a close second to all of this awesomeness is (and I'm about to get a little mushy, but DEAL WITH IT) the close female friendships and the ability to resolve conflicts between people who don't necessarily see eye-to-eye, resulting in closer friendship bonds. It's really rare to see a movie with this many female characters, period, and to have so much of their action revolve around each other and conflicts that have nothing to do with sexual partners is pretty fantastic. I don't know about the rest of you, but my friends and I do other things than sit around talking about people we like and creating drama because we all like the same narratively-convenient boy (well, also, the majority of my friends don't like boys, so there's that).
This felt like a much more earnest exploration of female relationships than we've seen in a long time, outside of maybe Bridesmaids (which I also loved, but which had its own set of weird issues) or Mean Girls (ditto). Also, seeing it set with younger women is just kind of a thing of majesty.
As one of my friends recently remarked, Pitch Perfect is to the upcoming young folk what 10 Things I Hate About You, She's All That or Can't Hardly Wait was to my generation when we were teenagers (pre-teens? I have no context of time). It perfectly encapsulates this time period and creates this sort of cultural touchstone that is incredibly relatable. And while my young self identified strongly but quietly with Kat Stratford and her desire to go to an all-women's college, I didn't realize at the time that there are hardly any interactions between any of the female characters. I didn't know about the Bechdel test when I was fifteen, nor did I understand the importance of real representations of relationships on screen. When things like relationship violence and backstabbing bitches are normalized from childhood, we don't remember to question the situations we end up in as we get older and life and relationships get more and more complicated. We're so used to the third-act conflict that we seek it out and often can't feel comfortable until it hits, because we know that something has to go wrong in order for everything to come out right.
Basically, what I'm saying is that you need to watch this movie, and I love it, and you should also read the article I linked to above about Beauty and the Beast and relationship violence. It's really good.
Issues:
- There are two female Asian characters, and neither of them speaks hardly at all. This is stupid.
- Many a joke is made about Fat Amy's size (including the continual referring to her as Fat Amy).
- Beca is really whiny in the beginning and spells her name with one C and doesn't like movies (?!!??!??).
- The lesbian character is in no way related to the obvious lesbian sexual tension in the movie. What?
Wonderful things:
- Fat Amy gets more play than pretty much everyone else and is hilarious and awesome.
- It was kind of like they took a bunch of plotlines from Degrassi but instead of correcting them, they were just kind of like, dude, whatever, they're adults, they can make mistakes (see: gambling (Alli Bhandari v. Cynthia Rose), promiscuity (Emma (UGHGHGHGHGHHGGHHGHGHGHGH) v. Stacie), angry teen rebels against parent(s) in an attempt to start a career in the arts (Manny (or Craig, except for the coke thing) v. Beca)).
- Bumper and Donald. Gettin' it.
- ELIZABETH BANKS. Oh my god. Elizabeth Banks. She is so amazing in this. She is so amazing all of the time. Elizabeth Banks, I love you. Never stop.
The best part about this movie is obviously the soundtrack, because, like, good god, my friends, some of these songs, like, I wanted to punch myself in the face because it was just WAY TOO AWESOME. Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:
Exhibit C:
Anyway, pulling a close second to all of this awesomeness is (and I'm about to get a little mushy, but DEAL WITH IT) the close female friendships and the ability to resolve conflicts between people who don't necessarily see eye-to-eye, resulting in closer friendship bonds. It's really rare to see a movie with this many female characters, period, and to have so much of their action revolve around each other and conflicts that have nothing to do with sexual partners is pretty fantastic. I don't know about the rest of you, but my friends and I do other things than sit around talking about people we like and creating drama because we all like the same narratively-convenient boy (well, also, the majority of my friends don't like boys, so there's that).
This felt like a much more earnest exploration of female relationships than we've seen in a long time, outside of maybe Bridesmaids (which I also loved, but which had its own set of weird issues) or Mean Girls (ditto). Also, seeing it set with younger women is just kind of a thing of majesty.
As one of my friends recently remarked, Pitch Perfect is to the upcoming young folk what 10 Things I Hate About You, She's All That or Can't Hardly Wait was to my generation when we were teenagers (pre-teens? I have no context of time). It perfectly encapsulates this time period and creates this sort of cultural touchstone that is incredibly relatable. And while my young self identified strongly but quietly with Kat Stratford and her desire to go to an all-women's college, I didn't realize at the time that there are hardly any interactions between any of the female characters. I didn't know about the Bechdel test when I was fifteen, nor did I understand the importance of real representations of relationships on screen. When things like relationship violence and backstabbing bitches are normalized from childhood, we don't remember to question the situations we end up in as we get older and life and relationships get more and more complicated. We're so used to the third-act conflict that we seek it out and often can't feel comfortable until it hits, because we know that something has to go wrong in order for everything to come out right.
Basically, what I'm saying is that you need to watch this movie, and I love it, and you should also read the article I linked to above about Beauty and the Beast and relationship violence. It's really good.
