Pitch Perfect: Accapela on the big screen

Films about music tend to be very interesting. The added dynamic of music means that the film must not only be a good piece of work by itself but importance should also be given to the musical aspect of the film. The soundtrack and score become even more important since they are a reflection of the subject of the film. It is rare when a film about music is also a comedy but the two have been blended together in the 2012 film Pitch Perfect.

Beca is an uninterested fresher in Barden University. She wants to follow her passion of making music by living in Los Angeles and getting a record deal but is forced to attend college by her father who is a professor. Her father agrees to fund the pursuit of her passion if she takes interest in her college life and mingles with her fellow collegians. At the same time, Chloe and Aubrey have been handed the mantle of the Barden Bellas, an all-girl accapela choir. They need to recruit talented freshers to be a part of the group and approach Beca who agrees after being pursued for a while. Beca also meets Jesse, a fresher who joins rival accapela team The Treblemakers. The feud between the Bellas and the Treblemakers goes all the way till the end of the accapela year, culminating in the coveted International Championship of Collegiate Accapela. Beca is torn between her love interest, her loyalty to her sisters in song and her reclusive identity as she makes it through the college year.

Directed by Jason Moore, the film is about one particular aspect of music: accapela. Through the fight for the championship, the film depicts sisterhood, loyalty, passion, tradition and more. The protagonist is a secluded person who does not allow other people to get emotionally attached to her and is a self admitted recluse. The film shows her character open up gradually and accept the people around her as friends and eventually one of them becomes a love interest. Most of the other characters in the film are shrouded in mystery with not much revelation coming through the course of the film. The comedy is sparse and subtle. It is mostly slapstick which makes it come across as a similar treatment that is adopted in modern parody films.

There are many references to the 1985 film The Breakfast Club. It is shown in high regard with one of the characters suggesting that it has the best ending ever made in film. The original soundtrack of the film is also mentioned and some of the songs from the soundtrack are performed in this film, possibly as a tribute to the original.

The selection of the songs in the film is predictable since most are chart toppers, however, the composition and arrangement in the accapela-style is unique and refreshing. It is probably the best feature of the film since the story is very easily predictable and the treatment and jokes aren’t excellent. Another redeeming feature of the film is that each character is eccentric making for an interesting collective.

Pitch Perfect could never be considered a great film. The only redeeming feature would be if someone were to watch it for its music.

50/50: Laughing through a fight with cancer

The general mood that follows the onset of a terminal disease like cancer is one which is downcast and solemn. Whether being inflicted by the disease personally or having a loved one around you who has the disease, it casts a shadow every time your thoughts go in the direction of the disease. It is a grave illness and claims many lives in its different forms. So, ideally, humour would not be associated with cancer. But that is where the 2011 film 50/50 breaks the norm.

Adam is a very focused and hard working individual who plies his trade at a radio station. He believes strongly in his work and likes it to be perfect before it goes on air. He has a loving mother, who takes care of his dad day-and-night because of his Alzheimer’s disease. He also has a happy-go-lucky, morally-unbound best friend Kyle and a girlfriend Rachael who spends most of her time with Adam at his house but stays away from physical pleasures with him. Adam is a careful person; he does not own a car for fear of having an accident and never learned how to drive which leaves him dependent on his family and friends to escort him everywhere he needs to go. In this mix, Adam visits a doctor for a backache and is revealed to have a tumour in his back of a rare form of cancer called schwannoma neurofibrosarcoma. Adam’s world slowly crumbles as he faces the cancer and treatment with the help of his family and friends while learning who really cares about him and will stand by him through thick and thin.

The premise of the film is about a guy with cancer who deals with life as it is thrown at him. But what makes the film brilliant is the way in which it has been dealt. Although it would be presumed that any humour involving a serious illness such as cancer would be black comedy, the film deals with the illness and its seriousness with poise. The humour is subtle with the protagonist and his best friend being the main vessels. As the protagonist opens to his condition and accepts it, his friend introduces him to new ideas whereby he can take advantage of his illness to procure medical marijuana and get compassion from women for one-night stands. As such, there is no disrespect towards the illness and people who suffer from it.

Although Joseph-Gordon Levitt plays the role of the protagonist well, the show is stolen by Seth Rogen in the supporting role. Rogen is actually cast as himself in a script written by Will Reiser based loosely on his own experience with cancer when Rogen helped him combat the illness just as Kyle does with Adam in the film. A tip of the hat also goes to Anna Kendrick who has played the role of the relatively inexperienced and awkward therapist who coaches Adam as he struggles with his illness.

The film deserves accolades and may actually be worth a rating which is better than it has received thus far. At the very least, it deserves to be watched a few times.