Pitch Perfect
Rating: PG-13
Run-Time: 1 hr 52 min
Pitch Perfect (2012), the movie, is based off of the book Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate a Cappella Glory by Mickey Rapkin. It follows the main character, Beca Mitchell, who has a difficult time adjusting and studying at Barden University, because she doesn’t want to be there. Her dad, a professor at the university, forced her to attend, but what she actually dreams of doing is moving to LA and producing music. After she starts skipping classes, though, he gives her a proposition: she can join an extracurricular club or group and if after one year she still doesn’t want to be there, she can leave. Because of this, she joins an a cappella group, the Barden Bellas, at her college. In turn, she helps revive the struggling group as they continue to face off against the male group, the Treblemakers, who have been their long-term rivals for quite some time. (Pitch Perfect)
The movie itself is very light-hearted, humorous, and very dramaticized. The movie utilizes one-liners and gross-out humor for most of its funny moments, and depending on who you are and what you like, this can either be an excellent thing or a horrible thing. All in all, though, it is a very entertaining movie, and the good outweighs the bad. The characters are very interesting and well-developed, and the movie captivates the audience in the more intense moments and scenes. The movie accurately depicts a character’s struggle to fit in, and a failing group’s struggle to survive and reclaim their former glory. The audience watches each character’s development and is allowed to get emotionally invested in each of the character’s journeys.
This movie is classified as and depicted to be a college movie, but it doesn’t depict college life extremely accurately, though. It represents some things accurately, but for others, especially in regards to collegiate a capella teams, it doesn’t. Many aspects of college life in the movie are simply dramatized for entertainment purposes, in hopes of making the audience laugh or making certain scenes more dramatic. Now as someone who commutes and does not live campus, I can’t give a completely full analysis of how accurately the movie reflects actual college life. I can, however, give a pretty good assessment based off of my few experiences in my classes and on campus and off of the other sources I’ve read.
What Pitch Perfect gets right in terms of college life is depicting being a freshman and getting adjusted. USA Today did an article on how well the movie represents college life, and they stated, “The movie begins with Anna Kendrick’s character on freshman move in day, where a peppy, overbearing, student ambassador greets her. At least once during your college years, you will meet someone like this. Many universities go out of their way to make freshmen feel comfortable on move-in day. And more often than not, they do so by having perky, over-caffeinated, upperclassman greet you at the front door.” (Brennan, Collin, Waldy Diez, and Christopher Newport University) These statements are quite accurate. In your Freshman year, you tend to meet one or two overly peppy upperclassmen, especially in orientation and on the first day of class, trying to psych you up for college in hopes of making you feel more comfortable. Many times it comes off as over-the-top or even cringey, but it’s all a part of the college experience.
Another thing the movie gets right is their depiction of college fairs. Many times there are college fairs held in order to present as many clubs as possibly and to persuade students to join. Pitch Perfect accurately depicts this. They tend to be a sort of rite of passage for Freshman, but they can also end up being uncomfortable and frankly awkward encounters, as shown in the movie (Brennan, Collin, Waldy Diez, and Christopher Newport University).
Something specific that the movie depicts inaccurately, is their portrayal of collegiate a cappella teams. There are quite a few collegiate-level a cappella teams in the United States, but the movie’s portrayal of them is very dramatized and not realistic or feasible. For example, in the Riff Off scene, what takes place would be very impractical and not possible in real life. “The idea that a group could pick any song out of a hat and start singing perfectly in unison — with harmonies, to boot! — is far fetched,” USA Today states (Brennan, Collin, Waldy Diez, and Christopher Newport University). Actual collegiate a cappella groups very much do not behave like this. It takes a lot of effort for them to harmonize and sound good together, and it’s not something instant that happens, as it is portrayed in the movie. It takes quite a lot of practice, a lot of patience, and the groups must run through many exercises.
Overall, though, Pitch Perfect is a very entertaining movie, and it’s likely to evoke a laugh or two - especially from college students. It may not be completely accurate, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be. It serves as a sort of caricature of college life and collegiate a cappella teams. It’s definitely not a perfect movie, but it is very entertaining and worth getting emotionally invested in, and it’s likely that one or two of their songs will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day after watching it.
Works Cited
Brennan, Collin, Waldy Diez, and Christopher Newport University. "Real or Nah? 'Pitch Perfect' versus Real-life Universities." USA Today. Gannett, 10 Aug. 2015. Web. 28 Sept. 2016.
Pitch Perfect. Dir. Jason Moore. Universal, 2012. DVD.
Run-Time: 1 hr 52 min
Pitch Perfect (2012), the movie, is based off of the book Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate a Cappella Glory by Mickey Rapkin. It follows the main character, Beca Mitchell, who has a difficult time adjusting and studying at Barden University, because she doesn’t want to be there. Her dad, a professor at the university, forced her to attend, but what she actually dreams of doing is moving to LA and producing music. After she starts skipping classes, though, he gives her a proposition: she can join an extracurricular club or group and if after one year she still doesn’t want to be there, she can leave. Because of this, she joins an a cappella group, the Barden Bellas, at her college. In turn, she helps revive the struggling group as they continue to face off against the male group, the Treblemakers, who have been their long-term rivals for quite some time. (Pitch Perfect)
The movie itself is very light-hearted, humorous, and very dramaticized. The movie utilizes one-liners and gross-out humor for most of its funny moments, and depending on who you are and what you like, this can either be an excellent thing or a horrible thing. All in all, though, it is a very entertaining movie, and the good outweighs the bad. The characters are very interesting and well-developed, and the movie captivates the audience in the more intense moments and scenes. The movie accurately depicts a character’s struggle to fit in, and a failing group’s struggle to survive and reclaim their former glory. The audience watches each character’s development and is allowed to get emotionally invested in each of the character’s journeys.
This movie is classified as and depicted to be a college movie, but it doesn’t depict college life extremely accurately, though. It represents some things accurately, but for others, especially in regards to collegiate a capella teams, it doesn’t. Many aspects of college life in the movie are simply dramatized for entertainment purposes, in hopes of making the audience laugh or making certain scenes more dramatic. Now as someone who commutes and does not live campus, I can’t give a completely full analysis of how accurately the movie reflects actual college life. I can, however, give a pretty good assessment based off of my few experiences in my classes and on campus and off of the other sources I’ve read.
What Pitch Perfect gets right in terms of college life is depicting being a freshman and getting adjusted. USA Today did an article on how well the movie represents college life, and they stated, “The movie begins with Anna Kendrick’s character on freshman move in day, where a peppy, overbearing, student ambassador greets her. At least once during your college years, you will meet someone like this. Many universities go out of their way to make freshmen feel comfortable on move-in day. And more often than not, they do so by having perky, over-caffeinated, upperclassman greet you at the front door.” (Brennan, Collin, Waldy Diez, and Christopher Newport University) These statements are quite accurate. In your Freshman year, you tend to meet one or two overly peppy upperclassmen, especially in orientation and on the first day of class, trying to psych you up for college in hopes of making you feel more comfortable. Many times it comes off as over-the-top or even cringey, but it’s all a part of the college experience.
Another thing the movie gets right is their depiction of college fairs. Many times there are college fairs held in order to present as many clubs as possibly and to persuade students to join. Pitch Perfect accurately depicts this. They tend to be a sort of rite of passage for Freshman, but they can also end up being uncomfortable and frankly awkward encounters, as shown in the movie (Brennan, Collin, Waldy Diez, and Christopher Newport University).
Something specific that the movie depicts inaccurately, is their portrayal of collegiate a cappella teams. There are quite a few collegiate-level a cappella teams in the United States, but the movie’s portrayal of them is very dramatized and not realistic or feasible. For example, in the Riff Off scene, what takes place would be very impractical and not possible in real life. “The idea that a group could pick any song out of a hat and start singing perfectly in unison — with harmonies, to boot! — is far fetched,” USA Today states (Brennan, Collin, Waldy Diez, and Christopher Newport University). Actual collegiate a cappella groups very much do not behave like this. It takes a lot of effort for them to harmonize and sound good together, and it’s not something instant that happens, as it is portrayed in the movie. It takes quite a lot of practice, a lot of patience, and the groups must run through many exercises.
Overall, though, Pitch Perfect is a very entertaining movie, and it’s likely to evoke a laugh or two - especially from college students. It may not be completely accurate, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be. It serves as a sort of caricature of college life and collegiate a cappella teams. It’s definitely not a perfect movie, but it is very entertaining and worth getting emotionally invested in, and it’s likely that one or two of their songs will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day after watching it.
Works Cited
Brennan, Collin, Waldy Diez, and Christopher Newport University. "Real or Nah? 'Pitch Perfect' versus Real-life Universities." USA Today. Gannett, 10 Aug. 2015. Web. 28 Sept. 2016.
Pitch Perfect. Dir. Jason Moore. Universal, 2012. DVD.