Pitch Perfect

Pitch Perfect
Teaser poster
Directed by	Jason Moore
Produced by	Paul Brooks Max Handelman Elizabeth Banks
Screenplay by	Kay Cannon
Based on	Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory  by Mickey Rapkin
Starring	Anna Kendrick Skylar Astin Rebel Wilson Adam DeVine Anna Camp Brittany Snow John Michael Higgins Elizabeth Banks
Music by	Christophe Beck Mark Kilian
Cinematography	Julio Macat
Editing by	Zach Chemberlene
Studio	Gold Circle Films
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	September 24, 2012 (2012-09-24)
Running time	112 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$17 million[2]
Box office	$113,042,075[2]

Pitch Perfect is a 2012 American musical comedy film directed by Jason Moore.^[3] The musical comedy features an ensemble cast, including Anna Kendrick, Skylar Astin, Rebel Wilson, Anna Camp, Brittany Snow, Ester Dean, Alexis Knapp, Adam DeVine, with John Michael Higgins, and Elizabeth Banks. The plot follows a women's college a cappella group, The Barden Bellas, as they compete against another a cappella group from their college to win Nationals. The film is loosely adapted from Mickey Rapkin's non-fiction book, titled Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory. Filming concluded in December 2011, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.^[4]

The film premiered in Los Angeles on September 24, 2012.^[5] Released on September 28, 2012 in the United States, the film met with positive reviews from critics, and earned over $113 million worldwide, becoming the second highest grossing music comedy film, behind School of Rock.

Plot

At a national a capella competition, the Barden University's all-female a cappella group, the Barden Bellas, performs well until Aubrey Posen projectile vomits on stage during her solo. They are publicly humiliated, losing any chance of winning. Four months later, newly arrived Barden freshman Beca Mitchell, has no desire to attend college, but she is forced to do so by her father, a professor at the university, with whom Beca has a strained relationship. Wishing she could instead pursue a career in music making, Beca spends her time making mash-up mixes of songs and takes up an internship at the school radio station, where she meets fellow freshman Jesse Swanson, who is immediately attracted to her.

When Beca's father discovers she has not been attending classes, he comes to her with a proposition: if she joins a club and still does not want to remain at college after a year, he will allow her to leave and pay for Beca to move to Los Angeles to pursue her music career. After some persuasion from group leader Chloe Beale, she reluctantly joins the Barden Bellas. Aubrey doesn't initially approve of recruiting Beca, but yields nonetheless due to a desperate need for members and Beca's talent. Beca joins alongside a group of other women who do not fit the Bellas' typical mold: Cynthia-Rose, Stacie Conrad, Lilly Onakuramara, and Fat Amy. Jesse is also revealed to have joined the Bellas' all-male rival group, the Treblemakers.

The Bellas participate in the southeastern regional competition at Carolina University where, at Aubrey's insistence, they perform the same medley that helped the Bellas advance to the finals the previous year. In spite of their old set list, the group manages to place second, which gives them the bid to semi-finals. A brief scuffle after the competition leads to Beca's arrest by the police. Jesse tries to help by calling Beca's father, who then tells Beca that he will no longer pay for her to move to Los Angeles. This infuriates Beca which turns her budding friendship with Jesse sour. In the meantime, Beca suggests to the Bellas to try and be more daring, but Aubrey insists that they will win with the repertoire the group has always used in the past.

At the semi-finals, Beca provides an impromptu back-up of one of her favorite songs into the "traditional" song on the Bellas' set list to reinvigorate the crowd after they seemed to have lost interest. The Bellas come in third in the competition behind the Treblemakers and the Footnotes. Even though the audience seemed to enjoy Beca's remix, Aubrey becomes furious with Beca, who in turn quits. When the Footnotes are later disqualified from the national competition because the lead singer was in high school, the Bellas are called to take part instead. The Bellas reform after spring break, with the notable exception of Beca. During rehearsals, Chloe stands up against Aubrey's stubbornness. The group starts to fall apart, which sparks a fight. Meanwhile, Beca tries to apologize to Jesse, which he declines. Beca then apologizes to the Bellas for her actions during the semi-finals and asks to have another chance, which Aubrey eventually allows. After having a group heart-to-heart conversation, the Bellas decide to adopt Beca's more modern and original music style. Meanwhile, group leader Bumper leaves the Treblemakers after being offered a job as a back-up singer for John Mayer. With Bumper gone, Jesse persuades the Trebles to let his previously-rejected roommate Benji join the group in Bumper's place.

At the a cappella national competition, the Bellas sing a piece arranged by Beca, which includes "Don't You (Forget About Me)" a song featured in Jesse's favorite movie The Breakfast Club. This acts as a more effective apology from Beca, and after the performance, Becca and Jesse kiss. The Bellas win the national competition and six months later, auditions for new members take place.

Cast

Production

The film is based on Mickey Rapkin's non-fiction book Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory. Rapkin, senior editor at GQ magazine, spent a season covering competitive collegiate a cappella. He followed the Tufts University Beelzebubs, the University of Oregon Divisi (the loose inspiration for the Bellas), and the University of Virginia Hullabahoos (who have a cameo in the film), writing about the singing, groupies, partying and rivalries. Two members of the a cappella community, Ed Boyer and Deke Sharon, both in Rapkin's book, were brought on board to arrange songs, produce vocals and act as on-site music directors.^[6] The film was shot throughout campus and inside buildings at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.^[7] Elizabeth Banks is a co-producer and a co-star in the film.^[7]

Casting

The casting department included Justin Coulter, Rich Delia, Allison Estrin, and Michael Roth.^[8] Producer Elizabeth Banks appears throughout the film alongside John Michael Higgins as commentators for the competitions.^[9]

Paul Brooks stated "First and foremost, we were looking for actors who had comedic instincts and thought we'd get lucky with terrific actors who happened to be funny and can actually dance and maybe sing. It turns out we did get lucky with our cast!"^[10] According to producer Elizabeth Banks, "The character Beca required someone who was grounded, who has a strong point of view on the world, who is funny and empathetic and someone who we can all relate to and root for." Of Kendrick she said, "Anna is all those things, and there was no other choice." Fellow producer Brooks said "I saw Anna in Up in the Air and thought it was the most exquisite, elegant, balanced, sublime performance. Anna was our first choice for the role of Beca."^[10]

xWhen casting the character of Jesse, Max Handelman said "We were looking for a young John Cusack-type guy. We needed to find someone who was kind of awkward but not a geek, but not so cool that you're not rooting for him." Skylar Astin was chosen for the role. Of Astin's audition, Banks said the chemistry between Skylar and Anna when they read together prior to shooting was "clear and they were able to riff off each other."^[10]

Rebel Wilson was recognized for her performance in the comedy film Bridesmaids upon auditioning for the role of Fat Amy, which she won instantly. Moore recalled Wilson singing Lady Gaga's "The Edge of Glory" while beating "on her chest with her fists". He said, "I didn't even hear the end of the song because I was laughing so hard. There's this beautiful openness to the way Rebel approaches everything, and that's what works great for the character. She's fearless".^[10] Adam DeVine was personally chosen by Banks and Handelman for the role of Bumper after they saw him on the television series Workaholics. Banks confessed that she and her husband are "big Workaholics fans" and after watching one night during the film's casting, they saw DeVine and "immediately thought" he would be a good choice for Bumper. He declined because he wasn't a singer. DeVine eventually surprised Banks and Handelman with his vocal skills.^[10] Anna Camp was chosen for the role of Aubrey. Producer Max Handelman said, "Elizabeth and I were huge fans of Anna's from True Blood. Aubrey is set up as the antagonist for Beca, and Beca's already a bit hard-edged, so it was so important to find an actress who could play Aubrey as someone who could marshal the crazy but also was sympathetic."^[10]

Reception

Box office

The world premiere took place on September 24, 2012 at the Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles, California.^[5][11]Pitch Perfect earned $64,666,000 (63.5%) in the United States, and a further $37,200,000 (36.5%) internationally, for a worldwide box office gross of $101,866,000 since release.^[2] The film opened to limited release in the United States and Canada on September 28, 2012 and wide release in the United States and Canada on October 5, 2012. It grossed $1,755,935 upon its opening day of limited release and $4,889,050 on its wide release.^[12] In its opening weekend the film opened at number 3 behind Taken 2 and Hotel Transylvania grossing $14,846,830 million.^[13] The opening weekend audience was 81 percent female, which is considered overwhelming. The opening weekend also attracted a younger audience with 55% of the opening weekend audience being under the age of 25.^[14] The film has become the second highest grossing music comedy film, behind School of Rock ($81.2 million). It is also the seventh highest grossing college comedy film behind Road Trip (68.5 million).^[15]

Critical response

Rebel Wilson was praised for her performance by critics.

Pitch Perfect received generally positive reviews. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 81% based on 137 reviews.^[16] Metacritic give a score of 66/100 on based on reviews from 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[17] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade A rating.^[18]

NPR's David Edelstein selected it as one of the top films of the year^[19] and Entertainment Weekly chose the soundtrack as one of the year's best.^[20] Chris Tookey of The Daily Mail, praised Rebel Wilson in particular for her performance.^[21] Roger Ebert gave the film 2 stars out of 4, and praised Rebel Wilson for her "ebullient, unstoppable and raucous" performance.^[22]

Accolades

Soundtrack

Pitch Perfect: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released digitally on September 25, 2012, and physically on October 2, 2012.^[26] Three of the songs from the album, including the highly covered "Cups", charted on the Billboard Hot 100. As of July 2013, the album has sold 913,000 copies in the US, making it the best selling soundtrack of 2013.^[27]

Sequel

In December 2012, Skylar Astin revealed that he and Rebel Wilson had meetings with Universal Studios about the potential sequel.^[28]

In April 2013, it was confirmed that a sequel would be released in 2015.^[29] Elizabeth Banks will direct the sequel, with Kay Cannon returning as screenwriter.^[30] Brooks will produce for Gold Circle Films alongside Banks and Max Handelman. Gold Circle’s Scott Niemeyer will executive produce. Cannon is co-producing with Gold Circle’s Jeff Levine. Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson will return, playing the characters they originated in the first film.^[31]

Home media

Pitch Perfect was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 18, 2012.

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Pitch Perfect (2012 film)

• Official website
• Pitch Perfect at the Internet Movie Database
• Pitch Perfect at Box Office Mojo
• Pitch Perfect at Rotten Tomatoes
• Pitch Perfect at Metacritic