Pitch Perfect 2 is about a group of female college students who form the The Bellas, the national acappella champions from Barden University.

Their sterling reputation is tarnished when a revealing incident featuring ‘Fat Amy’ (Rebel Wilson) occurs during a major performance. The goal is to regroup, maintain their dominance and win the world championship. On the road to this are sing-offs, parties, internships, a pushy parent and a bump in the road: an earnest and intimidating German group, Das Sound Machine.

Loosely inspired by Mickey Rapkin’s book, Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory, this type of event does actually take place, attracting hundreds of groups each year. Sequel to the successful 2012 film, Pitch Perfect, Elizabeth Banks directorial debut, Pitch Perfect 2 is at heart a mash-up, and has good odds at Peoples choice awards.

A musical mash-up as well as a strange mix of misogynist commentator, racial stereotypes and sexual innuendos. This teen musical comedy has occasional funny moments usually led by Fat Amy, but a lot of the drily delivered one-liners, fall flat.

The mixed bag of eclectic characters works, in an awkwardly endearing adolescent way, with a refreshing sense of inclusiveness.

If you like a cappella singing and dancing to 90s R&B, or you’re 9 years old, or if you were wondering what had happened to the The Bellas, you’ll probably love this.

Go see Pitch Perfect 2.

Chasing The Muse. When a film begins with a quote by Agnes Varda (bless her), you can sense it’s doomed.

Jean-François Davy does not disappoint. His goal is to create a video diary of the women he meets, for purely artistic reasons of course. If you can bear to listen to Davy’s 1h40 minute monologue on women and his sexual prowess in the 70s, then more power to you.

First stop Prague.

It’s easy to imagine the ad: French director looking for young women for a photo shoot. Watching these young, lithe, surgery-enhanced women made me cringe, imagining the hope they had placed on this meeting before laying eyes, hands and mouths on Davy. He asks for a lot and seems to get it, his gut overhang is not hard to miss. Next stop, Budapest and Kitty. A young woman, unable to communicate with Davy, dropped at the door by a man who looks like her brother or an inoffensive pimp, g-string inside out, ready (or not) to be gently molested by Davy, who is probably older than her grandfather. His post-production voice-over suggests he is probably the man she is looking for. I just hoped Kitty’s payment at the end was enough to at least buy a house.

Jean-François Davy’s cinema experience consists of erotic films in the 60s and 70s. Apparently his claim to fame is having a woman named Claudine Beccarie as his star and an audience of three million people. Beccarie however took early retirement from the porn scene to go and peacefully raise geese in the country. After seeing this film, it’s not hard to understand why. Davy left filmmaking for the next twenty years before giving himself this gift, like a 70^th birthday present to himself – a tour of nubile, desperate, aspiring actresses, spread out on click-clack couches, being given wads of cash, and looking like they need a good wash at the end of it all. Convinced that this is sexual liberty, Davy appears oblivious to the women’s paid performance, and this is where the film collapses. The film is a misdirected, badly filmed (by his underwear-clad wingman Pierre) and badly edited personal musing. His fantasy monologue confuses eroticism with the women he is paying. Davy attempts to disguise this documentary with the question of who decides what is eroticism and what is not. Could the only difference be the lighting? A pretty flimsy premise and a poor excuse for a film basically about manipulation.

If you pay to see this, then consider yourself robbed. I’m hoping for Kitty’s sake, this never makes it to a Budapest multiplex…

“Too much intimacy, love overload!” – Trainwreck

Amy is a Trainwreck.

Amy (Amy Schumer) shrieks as she is being group-hugged by her sister Kim (Brie Larson) and family. When she was nine years old, Amy’s dad Gordon (Colin Quinn) gave his daughters a message in the midst of divorcing their mother: “Avoiding intimacy and monogamy is the way to survive.”

Amy took the message seriously, despite him being an offensive racist, homophobic misogynist, yet funny, despite all that.  Trainwreck takes us through Amy’s failed very short term relationships, apparently semi-autobiographical.  Full of good dialogue, and laugh-out-loud funny, the film has enough depth to take Amy’s self-realisation, endearingly assisted by Aaron (Bill Hader) seriously.  Trainwreck is Schumer’s first film screenplay where she also holds the title role, and is one of the best romantic comedies in years and has good odds at the Golden Globes.  Yes, the trainwreck is Amy, something she does face up to.

Eventually.

In his recently released book of conversations with comedians ‘Sick in the Head’, Judd Apatow includes an interview with Schumer: “…I was blown away by how funny and intimate and fresh she was.  You could sense that she had stories to tell and was a lot more than just a comedian.”  Apatow, also instrumental in bringing Lena Dunham to the public, in his role as executive producer of Girls, champions young comedians, from his first TV series Freaks and Geeks to Knocked Up, Bridesmaids and This is 40.  His casts are always entertaining and well-selected, featuring people he has wanted to work with and comedians he has admired.

Criticised for being a touch too long at two hours, Apatow seems to be going for every laugh he can get and I loved it all.  A scene with cameos by LeBron James, Chris Evert (Lloyd) and Matthew Broderick although slightly where-did-this-come-from awkward, steers the focus away from the stereotypical nutty female character, to a balance where the male protagonist can’t seem to work out relationships either.

Amy Schumer answering the question on why her humour connects with people, really sums up the film in her response: “Just the feeling of losing all your confidence and feeling like you’re worthless because of how other people are treating you.  And then having to realise that the real issue is actually how you’re treating yourself.  I think that’s something most people have experienced, feeling like they don’t deserve love.”

Highlights were Tilda Swinton as Dianna, Amy’s editor at the lad-mag S’NUFF; Basketball star LeBron James playing himself, a well-buffed friend looking out for Aaron, the easygoing sports doctor superstar who befriends Amy; and the honest eulogy Amy presents. The mixture of truth and humour brought to you by Schumer and Apatow.  A fantastic combination.

Similar to Jack and the Beanstalk comes the short film Orphyr, a tale from the north of France.

A peasant in the French countryside, Orphyr, facing financial ruin is helped in unusual ways by a mysterious Green Lady. ‘Dame verte’ recognises and rewards his kindness to animals and nature.  This is French director Jonathan Degrelle’s first short film, who cites his major influences as Tim Burton & Guillermo del Toro.

Orphyr features a great performance by well-known French actress Corinne Masiero, in a particularly mean and unappealing role, as well as a rich and dominating sound track accompanying the film. Degrelle says the film is intended for a young audience, however the message remains ambiguous…is this film hallucinating or just drunk?

A little rough around the edges but an interesting first film.