I ate my twin in the womb

Pitch Perfect

Crit

Holy crap, I almost skipped this, which would have left a slot open in my list of funniest flicks of the year. And probably the best presentation of a studio's logo (Universal's), the instrumental accompaniment actually supplied a capella.

The plot is the same one we've seen in every academic competition story ever, but plot, schmott--what matters here are the tunes, and the giggles, and especially the giggles inspired by the tunes (like when you hear the intro to Lily Allen's "Fuck You" and wonder how they're gonna save the PG13 rating).

Hell, this may even inspire me to watch The Breakfast Club again, and I never thought I'd say that. Special mention, by the way, to the hilarious work by Elizabeth Banks and John Michael Higgins as the competition announcers. Oh, and speaking of hilarity, be very quiet whenever Lilly (Hana Mae Lee) speaks.

Stars in Shorts

Crit

I've admitted often (including Friday) that I'm not very good at anticipating narrative surprises, which makes me confident in saying that the surprise twists in several of these are abysmally unsurprising. A fairly weak collection altogether, though the finale sent me out smiling.

• The Procession--A mildly amusing joke, an out-of-place driver in a funeral procession distractedly stopping at a red light and thus losing--along with the half of the cars behind his--the route. Lily Tomlin fun as the overbearing mother--and always a welcome sight.
• Steve--A would-be Albee-esque playlet, with a loopy neighbor (Colin Firth) becoming increasingly impossible.
• Not Your Time--The model here is Bob Fosse, and especially All That Jazz, but if you're stealing from Tiffany, don't try to sell us costume jewerly.
• sexting--Interesting for Julia Stiles's bravura single-take delivery of a six-minute-plus monologue, but unfortunately, the speech isn't interesting, and the twist here is painfully obvious.
• Prodigal--This appears to be an X-men origin story, and the credit to Marvel in the end credits backs that guess. But seriously: was there no one involved in the making of this film who knows what the titular word means? Because it seems pretty clear that they were under the impression that it's synonymous with "prodigy."
• After School Special--Written by Neil LaBute (as was sexting), this is supposed to have not just a surprise but a transgressively shocking ending. But duh--we saw it coming, as it were.
• Friend Request Pending--Ah, but here's the jewel: Judi Dench in a beautiful tone poem about the fact that social networking makes teenagers of us all.

Trailers

• Playing for Keeps--Will this become a new favorite soccer flick? Probably not.
• Identity Thief--Melissa McCarthy in the title role, Jason Bateman as the victim, so I wouldn't rule out hilarity, but . . .