
Let me back up. Pitch
Perfect is a hilarious sports movie type flick about competitive college
acapella, which is totally a thing and may have been a major part of my college
experience. It follows Beca (Anna Kendrick), a fiercely independent only
slightly damaged college Freshman who gets pulled into the world of acapella
and finds herself revitalizing the all women’s group on campus.
When I say it’s like a sports movie, I mean that the film
follows a pretty standard rise and fall and rise again pattern. First, Beca
joins the “Barden Bellas”, who failed at nationals last year due to some
projectile stress vomiting. Next, she and the other new recruits try to shake
up the game. A battle for the soul of the group ensues, culminating when Beca
faces insurmountable setbacks in her quest to win at acapella, and quits. But
the group, lost without her, rallies and when Beca rejoins them, they surge to
the finish line!
So, you know, every sports movie ever. Especially Bring It On. I’m just saying.
That in and of itself isn’t super interesting, though. The
plot, hilarious though it may be, isn’t all that original. It’s a very familiar
pattern. What makes the film stand out is the really spectacular jokes. From
Brittany Snow’s vocal “nodes” to Elizabeth Banks’ really terrifying commentary
to absolutely everything that the other members of the Bellas say, the jokes
are what make the film. And that’s good. It’s a comedy for crying out loud.
Standout in the jokes department is Rebel Wilson’s Fat Amy,
and here is where I start to take issue with things. Because, yes, Rebel Wilson
is freaking hilarious and I have loved her in everything I’ve ever seen her in,
but don’t you think a few too many of the jokes in the movie are about how fat
she is?
Fat Amy, so called because she decided to call herself that
before anyone else could, is a loud, proud, sexually confident singer, who
happens to be completely insane and totally awesome. Seriously. She’s amazing.
It’s just that every once in a while the movie reminds us that we’re not really
laughing with Fat Amy, we’re laughing at her.
Like when the whole team does cardio to prepare for their
dance routines. Fat Amy decides to do “horizontal running” and appears
constantly out of breath. On its own? Hilarious. In context? A little less so.
Like when the guy on the opposing team tells her that she’s ugly. Or when the
former Bella’s comment about how ugly the team is this year, consisting as it
does of a bunch of insanely attractive people, and a few average looking
people. Or when we’re supposed to laugh and be shocked because Fat Amy is
surrounded by really hot guys on spring break.
I get it. It’s a comedy, and it’s funny. It is seriously
funny, I’m not denying that. But I dislike the culture it perpetuates. The idea
that large women are only funny if we’re laughing at them about their weight.
Fat Amy can’t just be confident, she has to be absolutely insane with
overconfidence. She can’t just have a healthy sexual appetite, she has to be
crazy oversexual. She’s can’t be a funny character who happens to be fat, she’s
Fat Amy.
It’s what I’ve come to think of as “Melissa McCarthy”
syndrome. The idea that a fat woman is never a woman who happens to be fat, but
is instead a fat woman. That her fatness is somehow integral to her identity.
If you recall in Bridesmaids, this
was kind of a thing. McCarthy’s character was milked for humor related to how
undesirable she was, and yet how interested she was in sex. It was funny
because she was so ugly, right? Her confidence was misplaced because obviously
that woman was a loser, right?
It felt like I was being slapped repeatedly in the face with
a reminder of how much it must suck to be fat and how epic it is to be skinny.
Which, come on. Really?
Right now Rebel Wilson’s career is kind of standing on this
kind of fat humor, and I feel like it’s pulling her back. I mean, kudos to her
for being willing to do this kind of movie, and I definitely don’t mind seeing
her in big ticket flicks, but I want to see her play someone who’s more than
her weight for once. Rebel, honey, you’re better than this. Really.
And the new Melissa McCarthy movie, Identity Thief? Just looks like more of the same. Ick.
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Go watch the movie because it's hilarious. |
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