1/4/13

Ah yes, Day 2 of the Julia-less weekend.  Surprisingly, yesterday went by pretty quickly.  Gabriel stayed up late - 10! - and I watched some Downton Abbey, a movie, and the Fiesta Bowl, where Oregon easily defeated Kansas State.

Today, Gabriel and I will go to the wildlife center, Walmart (egh!), and then... well... 

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I'm so glad Julia and I decided to go ahead and buy Pitch Perfect on feel alone.  Have you seen it?  If not, do so!  It's a less campy version of Glee.  The tartly chirpy, thoroughly appealing Anna Kendrick plays a college freshman who doesn't want to be there - she wants to be in L.A. working as a DJ - but decides to join one of the campus' a capella groups.  This group, the all-female Bellas, choked at the previous year's International Championship, but is determined - guided as it is by its disciplined, no-nonsense leader Aubrey (Anna Camp) - to get back and win it all. 

I suppose Rebel Wilson (the slobbish girlfriend of Kristen Wiig's odd roommate in Bridesmaids) steals the film as Fat Amy, a hilarious, unlikely powerhouse of the group.  But for me the most colorful and memorable of the girls is Lilly, the Asian who speaks so softly no one can hear her; tune your ears to her frequency and you'll hear some of the funniest, kookiest lines imaginable.

The film builds to an appropriately rousing climax - you know where Jason Moore's film (loosely adapted from Mickey Rapkin's book) is going every step of the way but that should in no way cloud your enjoyment of it - but for me the film's best scene is a sort of freestyle a capella-off with rival groups, with the teams doing renditions of 80s songs by women and songs about sex.

John Michael Higgins and Elizabeth Banks (who co-produced) appear (and get some good one-liners) as the commentators of the a capella competitions.

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Only a couple of movies of note opening this weekend:

- Promised Land     The Gus Van Sant movie (co-scripted from stars Matt Damon and John Krasinski from the Dave Eggers story) about fracking.  Critics are kind of lukewarm on this one, though the film has a good cast, which includes Frances McDormand, Rosemarie Dewitt, and Hal Holbrook.

- Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D     What's the point?  Every subsequent sequel or prequel to Tobe Hooper's scary 1974 original has sucked.  Why do we need this for the 3-D age?  Not screened, with probable good reason, for critics.