“Pitch Perfect” more than just holds up, it continues to charm. (Courtesy of Twitter)

Let me paint a picture for you. It is 2012. We just had the London Olympics, Barack Obama was re-elected into office and “Gangnam Style” began its cultural revolution. However, the historical event that had the most impact on eight-year-old me was the release of “Pitch Perfect” in late September. 

Not even 10 yet, I sat down with my older neighborhood friends (at the time, they seemed like full-blown adults, but in reality, they were 11), and they made me promise not to tell if they let me watch a PG-13 movie with them. I agreed to their conditions, both excited and nervous at the prospect of watching a movie meant for people five years older than me. Once it began, my life was never the same. Although it used a lot of swear words I did not know and cultural jokes I was too naive to wrap my head around, I loved the film. Over a decade later, my feelings have not changed; if anything, they have increased tenfold.

To those who have not seen the movie, explaining the premise does it absolutely no justice. It follows the story of a first-year in college, Beca, who is a social outcast due to her rebellious nature caused by the divorce of her parents. She attends Barden University, which I am pretty sure does not actually exist, a school notorious for its a cappella teams: the Treblemakers and the Barden Bellas. After a scandal that occurred the year before (one of the girls barfed mid-song), the Bellas try to recreate their image, but are instead met with a ragtag group of singers that ultimately change the face of a cappella forever. The movie has love, heartbreak and friendship, culminating  in the Bellas winning and creating one of the best movie comebacks ever. 

Obviously, it sounds like the worst musical rom-com, coming-of-age production that had ever been thought of. So, why is this movie so important to me?

Firstly, anyone who has ever seen the film has to admit that it has the peak, early 2000s dry humor that films of this decade often lack. Rebel Wilson’s iconic character Fat Amy has lines that still make me laugh when I hear them. The GIF of her screaming “Enough!” in the fight scene towards the end of the movie circulates around the internet all the time and has been sent in group chats more times than I can count. 

Even better than the written humor, the movie inherently makes fun of itself through the way it’s filmed. The Treblemakers, the Barden Bellas’ rivals, are an all-male singing group, but are somehow portrayed as “jocky” and deny a cappella-ists they view as losers. Although they parade around, acting tough and masculine, they are ironically undermined by the fact they walk around breaking out into song and dancing. I will say that the Trebles were my ultimate heart-throbs when I was younger. Jesse and Benji will forever hold a place in my heart. The seriousness associated with competitions legitimately about a cappella makes the film laughable without taking away from the music.

That leads right into my next point: the songs. Name any song on the “Pitch Perfect” soundtrack, and I could sing it word for word. I walk around humming “Whip It” and cue the riff-off when I need a hype song. The singing of Anna Kendrick, Ben Platt and Skylar Astin never gets old, even though the song is composed of voices and no instruments. 

The real reason this movie is so impactful is best exemplified by a recent example from my life. Not too long ago, on a Sunday afternoon, my roommate burst into the room, upset and unbearably sad. My heart ached for her, but nothing I offered seemed to raise her spirits at all. Finally, I asked, “Why don’t we watch a movie?” She reluctantly agreed, saying “no” to all my movie ideas while  I frantically searched for feel-good movies on the web.

Suddenly, I was hit with an epiphany. I turned to her and simply asked, “Pitch Perfect?” There was no need for debate –  we both love the movie and Amazon Prime miraculously offers it for free. A quarter of the way into the movie, she was laughing at the jokes and bemoaning with me over the way Beca treats Jesse (because, let’s all be real, we all want a man like Jesse). We sang along with the songs and both agreed that the Treblemakers probably should have won the a cappella collegiate competition even though t  we were rooting for the Bellas.

Therein lies the magic of the film: it may be about a cappella and have dumb one-liners, but it will never fail to make you feel better. The whole world disappears while watching Bumper glide across the stage or when the Bellas finally find their voice at the end of the film. It is almost impossible to be sad when watching Benji finally get his time on stage or when Beca and Jesse finally end up together. 

The film franchise did take a turn downhill with “Pitch Perfect 3,” but the first one remains perfect in my mind. I’ve watched that movie six times since the beginning of this school year and still have yet to get sick of it. You can say you don’t like the singing, or the writing is cheesy at times. But the film shows you that at the end of the day, it will all be okay. No matter how horribly you messed up the set while performing or if you yelled at someone you care about, there is a rainbow at the end of the storm. 

This film never fails to make me feel positive while singing along to some classic early 2000s hits. What more can I say? This film is aca-awesome.