Pitch Perfect

Not to be confused with Perfect pitch.

Pitch Perfect
File:Promotional poster for film "Pitch Perfect".jpg Promotional poster
Directed by	Jason Moore
Screenplay by	Kay Cannon
Produced by	Elizabeth Banks Paul Brooks Max Handelman
Starring	Anna Kendrick Rebel Wilson Skylar Astin Brittany Snow Anna Camp Ben Platt Adam DeVine Freddie Stroma Hana Mae Lee Alexis Knapp Ester Dean
Cinematography	Julio Macat
Edited by	Zach Chemberlene
Music by	Christophe Beck Mark Kilian
Production companies	Relativity Media Gold Circle Films
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	September 28, 2012 (2012-09-28)
Running time	112 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$17 million
Box office	$107,124,093

Pitch Perfect is a 2012 musical comedy film directed by Jason Moore. The screenplay was written by Kay Cannon. The musical comedy features an ensemble cast consisting of Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Skylar Astin, Anna Camp, Brittany Snow, Ester Dean, Alexis Knapp, Ben Platt, and Adam DeVine. The plot follows an all girl 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 novel, also titled Pitch Perfect. Filming concluded in Mid-December 2011, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The film premiered in Los Angeles on September 24, 2012. Released on September 28, 2012 in the United States, Pitch Perfect grossed over $65 million domestically and $40 million internationally, as well as peaking at No. 3 at the Box Office. The film became the second highest grossing musical comedy film behind School of Rock. The film was also met with positive reviews from critics, receiving an 81% positive rating on the review website Rotten Tomatoes based on 135 reviews. It was mostly praised by critics for its comedic approach, its flashy musical numbers and the performance of Wilson.

Plot

The film revolves around the Bellas, an all-female a cappella group from Barden University. Reeling from a humiliating loss at the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella, the group struggles to find new members the next year.

Beca (Anna Kendrick), a Barden freshman, has no desire to go to college, but is forced to attend by her father, a professor at the university. Wishing to instead move to Los Angeles to pursue a career in music production, she takes up an internship at the school radio station, where she meets fellow freshman Jesse (Skylar Astin). When Beca's father (John Hickey) finds out that Beca has not been attending classes, he offers to let Beca go to Los Angeles if she joins a club and proves that she wants to be involved. After some persuasion from Aubrey (Anna Camp), the group leader, and Chloe (Brittany Snow), she joins the Bellas, along with a group of other women who do not fit the Bellas' typical mold, including the homosexual Cynthia-Rose (Ester Dean), the sexually driven Stacie Conrad (Alexis Knapp), the quiet Lilly Onakuramara (Hana Mae Lee), who speaks inaudibly, and Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson).

At practice, Aubrey's controlling nature gets on the nerves of the other girls. She is constantly critical and insists that they use the same set list the Bellas have been using for years, which clashes with Beca's contemporary style. Meanwhile, Beca hangs out with Jesse—who has joined the Treblemakers, the Bellas' main rival—despite Aubrey's warning to the group not to get involved with Treblemakers. Beca plays several of her own mixes of contemporary songs for him, and he compliments her for her talent. He then tries to get Beca to watch the ending of The Breakfast Club, his favorite movie, after Beca tells him she does not like movies because they bore her and she never gets to the ending.

Despite their issues, the Bellas attend the regional a cappella competition. In spite of their bland set list, the group manages to place second at the regional a cappella competition. On the way to semifinals, the group stops for gas where Fat Amy is hit with a burrito by Bumper (Adam DeVine), the leader of the Treblemakers, as they drive past in their own bus. After the other girls clean her up, they continue on to the venue but run out of gas since Fat Amy forgot to put any in the bus. They are then forced to call the Treblemakers to drive them to the venue.

At the semifinals, Beca notices how bored the audience is with Aubrey's traditional arrangement, so she provides impromptu back-up, La Roux's "Bulletproof". The Bellas come in third in the competition behind the Treblemakers and the Footnotes. Even though the audience was pleased, Aubrey is not and she yells at Beca, who quits the group. The Bellas make it into the Nationals after the Footnotes are disqualified because their lead singer was discovered to be in high school, not college. The Bellas get back together after spring break, but Beca is not included.

During this time, Beca begins working as a DJ at the university radio station, playing her music on the overnight shift, and also steadily distancing herself from Jesse. She finds a copy of The Breakfast Club and watches it. She realizes how much she needs the Bellas in her life. Her father convinces her to rejoin the Bellas, who she finds falling apart. The Bellas, complete once more, have a heart-to-heart and appoint Beca as the leader. They also decide to kick things up a notch with Beca's 21st-century mash-ups.

At the National Competition, the Bellas sing a piece arranged by Beca, including "Don't You (Forget About Me)", the theme from The Breakfast Club. The Bellas win the competition and Beca and Jesse reunite with a kiss. Fast forward to 6 months later in new auditions, where it shows Jesse and Benji sitting at a desk in the auditions hall, followed by Beca and the Bellas, along with their Nationals trophy, preparing to select new members for their groups.

Cast

• Anna Kendrick as Beca Mitchell, a reclusive girl who wants to pursue a music career, she joins the Bellas to please her father and finds herself being caught up in their world.
• Skylar Astin as Jesse Swanson, member of the Treblemakers.
• Anna Camp as Aubrey Posen, the uptight and traditionalist leader of the Bellas.
• Brittany Snow as Chloe Beale, the kinder and more civil co-leader of the Bellas who reveals that she has nodes on her vocal chords.
• Rebel Wilson as Fat Amy, a comedic and irresponsible member of the Bellas from Tasmania.
• Ben Platt as Benji Applebaum, Jesse's nerdy roommate, who is rejected from the Treblemakers and is an illusionist and later on was accepted by Jesse
• Hana Mae Lee as Lily Onakuramara, an Asian member of the Bellas who speaks too quietly to be heard.
• Ester Dean as Cynthia-Rose, a member of the Bellas, a misunderstood lesbian who has a serious gambling problem.
• Adam DeVine as Bumper Allen, the egotistical leader of the Treblemakers.
• Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Tommy, the university's audition launcher who is constantly harassed.
• Alexis Knapp as Stacie Conrad, a highly sexual member of the Bellas.
• Utkarsh Ambudkar as Donald, Bumper's right hand man, who beatboxes, raps, and is a main vocalist.
• Jinhee Joung as Kimmy Jin, Beca's unfriendly Korean roommate.
• Elizabeth Banks as Gail Abernath-McKadden, a commentator for the ICCAs.
• John Michael Higgins as John Smith, a misogynistic commentator for the ICCAs.
• Freddie Stroma as Luke, the radio station manager who plays Beca's DJ mixes on the air.
• John Benjamin Hickey as Dr. Mitchell, Beca's father, a professor at the college who insists that she attends.

Production

The film is based on Mickey Rapkin's non-fiction novel Pitch Perfect. 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. The movie was filmed throughout campus and inside buildings at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Elizabeth Banks is a co-producer and a co-star in the film.

Casting

The casting department included Justin Coulter, Rich Delia, Allison Estrin, and Michael Roth. The film stars Anna Kendrick, Anna Camp, and Brittany Snow. Producer Elizabeth Banks appears throughout the film alongside John Michael Higgins as commentators for the competitions.

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!” 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's stating she said, "Anna is all those things, and there was no other choice for the movie.” 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." When 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."

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". 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. However, he declined because he wasn't a singer. However, DeVine eventually surprised Banks and Handelman with his vocal skills. 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."

Release

The world premiere of Pitch Perfect took place on September 24, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. Pitch Perfect has earned $64,666,000 (63.5%) in the United States, and a futher $37,200,000 (36.5%) elsewhere, for a worldwide box office gross of $101,866,000 since release. 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. In its opening weekend the film opened at number 3 behind Taken 2 and Hotel Transylvania grossing $14,846,830 million. The opening weekend audience was 81 percent female, which is considered overwhelming. The opening weekend also attracted a younger audience with 55 percent of the opening weekend audience being under the age of 25. The film has become the second highest grossing Music Comedy film behind School of Rock ($81.2M). It is also the seventh highest grossing college comedy film behind Road Trip (68.5M). Pitch Perfect was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on December 18th 2012

Critical Reception

Rebel Wilson was praised for her performance by critics.

And her boobs are shown in the movie so watch it....

Pitch Perfect received generally positive reviews. It received an 81% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 124 reviews as well as 65 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 30 "generally favorable reviews". It was also well-received by audiences, who gave the film an "A" CinemaScore on an A+ to F scale. The film was mostly praised for its comedic approach, which some critics have compared to Bring It On, as well as the film's flashy musical numbers and Rebel Wilson's performance. NPR's David Edelstein selected it as one of the top movies of the year and Entertainment Weekly chose the soundtrack as one of the year's best.

Accolades

List of awards and nominations for Pitch Perfect

Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result
Broadcast Film Critics Association Award	Best Actress in a Comedy	Rebel Wilson	Nominated
Detroit Film Critics Society Award	Breakthrough Performance	Rebel Wilson	Nominated
Motion Picture Sound Editors	Best Music in a Musical Feature Film	Pitch Perfect	Pending
People's Choice Award	Favorite Comedy Movie	Pitch Perfect	Nominated
San Diego Film Critics Society	San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress	Rebel Wilson	Nominated

Soundtracks

Main article: Pitch Perfect (soundtrack)

Possible sequel

Producer Paul Brooks and director Jason Moore told Variety that since the reception to the film was good, a sequel could potentially happen next year. In December 2012, Skylar Astin revealed that he and Rebel Wilson had meetings with Universal Studios about the potential sequel.

External links

• Official website
• Pitch Perfect at IMDb
• Pitch Perfect at AllMovie
• Pitch Perfect at Box Office Mojo
• Pitch Perfect at Rotten Tomatoes
• Pitch Perfect at Metacritic