Review: Pitch Perfect 3

Pitch Perfect 3 (2017) - Trish Sie

       The first Pitch Perfect movie came out over five years ago, and it was a modestly charming little comedy about finding your voice (I'm vomiting typing that, it was an intentional barf-comment) and sharing your passion with the people who are important to you. Somehow, the fact that it was about acapella singing didn't make it the most annoying thing in the world (unlike actual acapella singing, which is objectively the worst thing ever invented after racism and PT Cruisers), and I was super surprised to find that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Then three years later they made a sequel that no one really asked for, but was still...kinda good! It had a few too many racist stereotype jokes and certainly wasn't necessary, but it kept these same (mostly) likable characters and had a enough of a handle on the music/singing sequences that it still worked, even if there was a diminishing return beginning.
       And now here we are, capping out the trilogy that DEFINITELY nobody asked for! And all the characters you kind of remember are back! There's Becca (Anna Kendrick), Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson), um...the one who loves singing a lot (Brittany Snow), the really uptight one who barfed in the first one (Anna Camp? I wanna say? I don't feel like IMDBing it right now, sorry), and all the rest that filled out the rest of the Barden Bellas, the premier female acapella singing group in the country (hahaha, that's not a thing). Only this time they're all graduated and living in the real world, having a rougher time of it than they anticipated, so they get back together for one more job! One last score! One...final...jobber! For some reason!

        Let me be very clear from the start (if you consider third paragraphs the start): Pitch Perfect 3 is an incredibly stupid movie. The plot is nonsensical, but it doesn't matter in the slightest because the movie is only barely interested in creating an actual narrative. It's much more interested in showing us Becca magically sampling music beats together to make good (?) songs and Fat Amy's murdering/drug dealer father who kidnaps the Bellas to get control of the 180 million dollars Amy has in an off-shore bank account in the Caymen Islands. Also the father is John Lithgow and he has an Australian accent. I promise I know how stupid these previous sentences sound. And yet, goddamn-it-all to hell if I didn't find this stupid little movie about acapella singing that isn't actually about acapella singing at all anymore pretty fun and charming.
        Sometimes movies can get by on ineffable charm and sweet interactions from its lead. That doesn't mean all movies SHOULD do that, but if it can then I say go with it. Anna Kendrick is always likable, giving a wry deadpan that helps make the ridiculous excitement of all the other characters more relatable. Rebel Wilson is doing the one thing she keeps doing, but for some weird reason it hasn't worn off on me (it probably should, I get it, she's fat, I think they've mentioned it before). This time the Bellas are traveling around Europe (I'm pretty sure they did that in the last one too? Once again, however, I am not going to IMDB this to find out) touring with a USO show for the troops, and at the end of the tour one of the three groups opening for DJ Khaled (Is that a real person? I've already made it clear I will not unearth any of this information myself) will be offered a music deal. Will it be the Bellas? Will Becca get her big break?!

       Who cares!? Like I said, this isn't really a movie about singing anymore. Instead, let's have John Lithgow show up and kidnap the Bellas while Fat Amy has to go on a rescue mission to save them from Lithgow's yacht and essentially kill half a dozen unnamed henchmen in the process, fighting kung fu and doing back flips and shit. It is SO stupid. They DO however, sing Toxic by Britney Spears to help distract the evil guys long enough to let Amy save the day! (This movie is SO idiotic, I almost kind of revere it). But even though it's ridiculousness never ends, the movie still does a decent job with all the songs and musical sequences (these movies have always done these well), and most importantly, actually cares about its characters while at the same time making fun of them for loving acapella so much. (In fact, part of the reason these movies have worked at all from the beginning is it does NOT take instrumentless singing very seriously at all. Its ability to poke fun at itself has always been one the series' best traits. Self-awareness is what made me fall in love with C-Tates, after all).
        If you haven't seen and enjoyed the previous two installments, don't bother with this one. Even if you DID, you can probably still skip this flick. It's been advertised as "The Final Chapter" in this truly magnanimous trilogy, and even while I enjoyed it for what it was, I truly hope it is the last. If they make a fourth (which I know I would still see because I am incorrigible) I think it would actively make me a stupider person during the run-time. Like, I'd leave the theatre and forget what gerunds are. But for now, I'll take fun and dumb.

Movie Grade: Six Australian John Lithgows.