Pitch Perfect

There's a buoyant, girl power charm to Pitch Perfect, an acapella mixing of Bring it On and Mean Girls.  Set in a college where the fringe, all vocal without instrumental accompaniment, is the hottest ticket, there's a nicely packaged let's-put-on-a-show desire in director Jason Moore (Tony-nominated for Avenue Q) displays that deserves affection in it's crowd-pleasing aplomb.  There's also a feeling, not uncommon from an episode of Glee, where one might find themselves saying, okay, just shut up and sing.  The spectacles of the stage are the shining moments, where the characters-- many interchangeable-- let it out, and like in moments in life where a silly pop song has that nifty way of channeling either something personal or searing, Pitch Perfect lives close to its name.  Otherwise, it's an uneven, at times cringe-worthy, collection of awkward vignettes framed and pre-sold to the tween CW crowd.  Make no mistake, there's some funny one-liners and a few great sight gags that keep everything moving sprightly enough, but there's a tonal lack of focus and a by-the-numbers formula that keeps the film grounded from being the great crowd-pleasing song and dance film it is so eagerly striving for.  Shut up and sing....

Beca (Anna Kendrick) is an above it all college freshman, giving a free meal ticket to Barden University by way of her estranged professor father, but all she wants to do is mix tracks.  So inside her headphones, she neglects and rejects studies, potential suitors or friends.  That is until the school's all-girl acapella group scouts her.  Kendrick is certainly a gifted performer, a Tony-nominated actor for her supporting role in the musical High Society (her rendition of "The Ladies Who Lunch" in 2004's Camp is a winningly bitchy), but her sour-puss routine starts to becomes tired way before anyone in the film starts to call her out on it.  Her drama includes a requisite father-daughter abandonment issues, a sweet dork named Jesse (Skylar Astin) who pines for her, and a group of talented misfit singers, called the Barden Belles, who need her.  Had Beca lightened up way before curtain time, Pitch Perfect would have been a lot more fun-- character depth need not apply for a film that's so desperate to achieve affection.

The Belles themselves have something of a misfortune to overcome.  The year prior, at the national finals at Lincoln Center, head Belle, Aubrey (Anna Camp) embarrassed her peers with a gross presentation of nerves.  A year later, Aubrey, alongside co-head Belle, Chloe (Brittany Snow) strive to come back, while maintaining the faithful tradition of the Belles-- their longtime nemesis come from the all boys choir from the same school, the Treblemakers; Beca's drama doubles when Jesse becomes a member.  The Belles, in crisis, recruit what they can, including a flamboyant Brit dubbed by herself as Fat Amy (Bridesmaids' Rebel Wilson), as well as a cast of misfits that seemingly pose little threat.  It's when Beca clashes and mixes up the tradition of the Belles that they, predictably, if only seemingly narratively improbably, find their voice.

I may snark too much, for parts of Pitch Perfect are as smooth as easy listening, and jell on the silly footnotes of a punchy script.  When something is off, the film flints away and moves with a wistful tune.  For every misstep, or disgraceful cue, there's a song around the corner that flirts with a joyful tune, for every girls behaving badly fail, there's a zippy one liner to the rescue, and for every gross, awkward turn, there's Elizabeth Banks and John Michael Higgins, playing acapella announcers to spike an ironically zinger.  For like a stupid, silly pop song, Pitch Perfect, while far from, moves swift enough for one to forget it flaws rather easily.  B-

Up in the Air

It's sometimes hard to form a natural true opinion of a film that seems to be radiating buzz and love from film critics, awards organizations, and other movie enthusiasts. Such is a predicament I experienced recently with Precious, which I had heard nothing better rave hyperbole all the way since January, but I loved the film anyway. On the other hand that was the case with An Education too, and I didn't quite love that one. Here's Up in the Air, which since September and its debuts at the Toronto Film Festival, where all the bloggers and critics and their ilk wrote up a storm about Jason Reitman's third film, and then came the early awards, and more reviews. And while the film is still fresh as a daisy in my brain, I think I'm ready to proclaim in the real deal. I've been rooting for Reitman since his debut film Thank You For Smoking, onto pure joy with Juno, and here is his most mature and refined piece of work. There's comedy, a little bit of romance, social commentary at hand, but a sign of a true humanist working in Hollywood. He may be a softie, but his films have resonance, and power.

Up in the Air, I think, packs more a punch. It stars George Clooney as Ryan Bingham. Bingham is the go-to-guy for cowardly corporate bosses to fire their employees. So it's a glowing time for Bingham in todays America. He travels across the country, living in a suitcase, free from regular human commitments, just as Bingham prefers. On the side he's also a motivational speaker, extolling the dangers of a life full of personal attachments. "We're sharks," he states, "moving is living." He digs the flying, the airline miles, gold star rental car and hotel treatment (his mission is to get ten million frequent flyer miles, just because he'd only be the seventh person on the planet to do so.) It's probably the perfect role for Clooney, as it plays to his own persona of lone bachelor, and he oozes charm in the rare movie star breed that's lacking so much in today's cinema climate. In other words, Ryan Bingham probably would not be a very a likeable character played by anyone else, but it's also an accomplishment that Clooney, though seemingly never breaking a sweet, makes him not only likeable, but sympathetic.

His world is starting to change however, with the arrival of Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick), a bright and eager Cornell graduate with innovative ways of changing the rule of things and Bingham's cozey airtime miles. Instead of firing people in person, let's do it over the internet via webcam. She is then opted to be protegue to Bingham. The dynamic of the film changes, but in a revolutory way, and lots of that is based on the rapport between Clooney and Keener-- like oil and vingear mostly. Kendrick (previously of Camp, Rocket Science, and Twilight) proves a more than capable foil, and puts a fresh spin on her line delieveries. Again not the most likeable character in concept, but seeing Kendrick unravel and become more aware of the process of ruining peoples lives deepens the film; making it not always the light hearted comedy that advertising might suggest.

The other woman that challenges Bingham is Alex (Vera Farmiga), a female counterpart whom he meets and flirts while mingling at an airport bar. They are both obsessed and turned on by the casual up-in-the-air lifestyle..."moving is living." Foreplay basically consists of bragging about platinum cards and the best rental car agencies. The game changer is that Bingham slowly starts to fall for Alex. It's the most traditionally genre part of the film, but never falls into cliche, because the chemistry between Clooney and Farmiga is soooooo good. The pitter patter dialouge reminded me of classic screwball comedies of the 1940s.

The great thing about Up in the Air, and the quality that makes me confident that Reitman as forminable director is that the film never loses sight of its entertainment value, of it's lightness or comedy, but that it bounces back up into a higher pantheon of filmmaking because it's set in backdrop all too familiar to contemporary America. People are losing their jobs, and it takes a bold filmmaker to put on display a serious downer issue, and yet still make a very populist, entertaining film about the subject. The context is there and as a narrative Up in the Air feels more than anything else I've seen this a total 2009 time capsule film; this is where we are right now. The scenes where Clooney is firing people (and many of the victims are portrayed by real life laid-off workers) is just a poignant and moving and uncomfortable as the door stop scenes in The Messenger, another 2009 gem of timely subject matter.

So while my natural opinion might sound like hyperbole somewhat, I did naturally dig this film. A-