Happily surprised, LOVED IT! Funny, clever.

Rating: 10/10 (20 September 2012)

MUCH BETTER than I expected. Received preview ticket, and went reluctantly, braced for a shallow, mean, trite and petty movie. (Sorry! Maybe the photo or writeup on the ticket misled me...) I'm a frumpy, conservative adult. But I very much love music as a teacher, consumer, and performer. I GRINNED throughout the entire movie. The rating is fair, though movie does border on R, so be warned. The MUSIC is up and fun. This is not a musical in the sense people talk to each other in songs. It has a LOT of singing, partly because people that like to sing are with people that like to sing, so they SING. If you've been on a bus headed to camp, and joined in a song, you know how that can happen. The script just built in a lot of opportunities to sing. The dialog is snappy and clever. Characters are stereotyped artfully and quickly, allowing the banter to zing along and entertain with breathtakingly little setup. Just enough explanation is given to account for motive, even regarding the "mean" behavior, and make it understandable. "My Cousin Vinney" has no "villains", and in the end maybe the same can be said here. The only movie in my limited experience I'd compare it to is "She's All That", because it is at school, there is a pretty, talented, aloof main female character (here, Anna Kendrick), some romantic suspense, few adults anywhere to be seen, and it lands on its feet. But compared to "She's All That", "Pitch Perfect" moves quicker -- it is lighter on its feet ---, has more interesting, likable characters, and is LOADED with entertaining performances---song and choreography --- which are pitched too perfect to be live, but presented in movie form in a way that is bound to delight and energize. Left theater happier than I arrived by a long shot. I would like to see it again.