Movie, music and TV reviews by Matt Neal, a Rotten Tomatoes-accredited ABC Radio film critic (also an author, musician, journalist and all-round okay guy).
Okay, so the Hottest 100 has been run and won, and amid the cries of "ya joking, should've been higher" and "triple j is so shit these days" there is some knowledge to be gained. And here it is. Sit down. Be humble.
Kendrick is king
Kendrick Lamar is the first African-American to top the triple j Hottest 100. He is the first artist to win having previously finished second. Humble is only the second hip hop song to top the chart. Lamar had four songs in the countdown - it's only the fifth time the poll-topper has had four or more songs in that year's Hottest 100. He also placed #3 in the triple j listeners' poll. Oh, and he just won a big pile of Grammys. Everything's coming up Kendrick.
Hip hop rules, OK?
Lamar wasn't the only hip hop artist doing well this year - it was a big year for rap in the Hottest 100. Thundamentals reached the top 10, Brockhampton were just outside it, and elsewhere the likes of Khalid, Baker Boy, Post Malone, Drake, Migos (on a Calvin Harris track), NERD, Allday, Big Shaq, Odette, Macklemore, Bliss N Eso, Hilltop Hoods (on a Thundamentals track), Future, and Stormzy dropped it like it was hot. All up, that's 23 songs, or almost a quarter of the countdown. Pretty sure that's a record.
It's a metal-free zone
"Where's the metal?" asked some Twitter users. The answer was "nowhere". The closest thing to heavy was DZ Deathrays' Shred For Summer and that ain't metal - it just has the word "shred" in the title. Even the Queens Of The Stone Age song was more dancefloor than moshpit. In recent years, there's always been a sprinkling of metal tracks, but that drizzle dried up in 2017. The highest ranking metal song in the whole 200 was Architects with Doomsday at #139, with Polaris' The Remedy not far behind at #142. Does this mean metalheads don't vote in the Hottest 100 anymore or were there too many killer metal songs to vote for?
Foo Fighters are officially "dad rock"
Powderfinger and Foo Fighters are locked at 22 apiece in the battle to claim the crown of most Hottest 100 entries, and with the 'Finger retired and the Foos dropping a great album in 2017, it looked like Dave Grohl and his buddies were going to take the prize. But it wasn't to be. Despite boasting a Grammy-winning single, the Foos didn't even crack the top 200. It's the first time they've released an album that didn't yield a track in the 100 (and it's a great album too). So it's official - Foo Fighters are now "dad rock", and their days of filling the triple j airwaves seem over. Muse appear to have joined that category as well, and one would imagine Queens Of The Stone Age aren't far behind.
The youths are alright
While Gang Of Youths didn't get the top prize, three songs in the top 10 is nothing to be sneezed at. Powderfinger (2003) and Chet Faker (2014) are the only other acts to have done it. Mind you, GOY is the first act to get three in the top 10 while also getting two in the top five. They had four in the top 100, and a further three in the top 200. Not bad at all.
Winning is not the end
It was a great year for acts who had previously won the countdown. Flume, The Rubens, Vance Joy, Macklemore, Angus & Julia Stone, and Queens Of The Stone Age all returned, which is a record. Typically, a few previous winners make a return to the Hottest 100 each year, with the previous best being four in 2009.
Yacht rock is back, baby
Forget hip hop, this is the genre of 2017. Winston Surfshirt's Be About You, Holy Holy's True Lovers, Ocean Alley's The Comedown, Kingswood's Golden - yacht rock is where it's at. But don't take my word for it - watch the above clip and let Hollywood Steve take you on a journey.
(MA15+) ★★★★★ Director: Martin McDonagh. Cast: Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Caleb Landry Jones, Lucas Hedges, John Hawkes, Peter Dinklage, Abbie Cornish, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Željko Ivanek, Samara Weaving, Brendan Sexton III.
The latest ad campaign from Apple was too edgy.
IS it too early to start talking about how Martin McDonagh is one of the great writer-directors of the past decade?
Sure, he's only delivered two films prior to now - the modern cult classic In Bruges and the too-clever but great fun of Seven Psychopaths - but they're a good foundation, demonstrating an incredible mind for scriptwriting and an understated way of bringing those scripts to the screen . And when you add his best film to date on top, you have the makings of a great writer-director.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a masterclass in screenwriting, acting, and directing. It is overflowing with great characters, brought to life beautifully by a stellar cast, and has a strong thematic and emotional core, while still being wickedly and darkly funny.
The somewhat unconventional story kicks off with Mildred Hayes (McDormand) hiring three billboards near her house to post a message questioning why the local police haven't caught her daughter's killer and rapist. The billboards set in motion a chain of unpredictable events that will affect everyone in the small town of Ebbing.
At its heart Three Billboards is about what death leaves behind, and the lasting impacts of violence. The most poignant quote in the film, and the one that sums it up the best, is simply "violence begets violence". While the expression of this idea is typically played for laughs due to McDonagh's dark wit, it's nonetheless a great theme explored in fascinating ways. Every violent act in the film - and there are a few - has interesting and unexpected repercussions, some good, some bad, with most of them spurring further violence in an escalating chain of savagery and stupidity.
Through it all, McDonagh's skill for black comedy is at the fore, softening the harshness of some of the content and packing a punch in other places. But none of it would work without a killer cast, and luckily he has that.
Lead actor McDormand is everything in this - she's a stoic, take-no-crap firecracker of a grieving mother whose sorrow and anger manifest in unexpected ways. It's a wonderful, award-worthy performance and up there with her Oscar-winning turn in Fargo as among the best in her career.
She's ably supported by Rockwell as a racist, dimwitted cop who has the most fascinating arc of any character in the film. Harrelson's too-brief appearance is a joy to behold, whether he be chuckling at everything that's going on, or dealing with his own dark truths. Elsewhere, Dinklage and Hawkes are good in small but well rounded roles - McDonagh's script makes sure to give almost every character a little story to intertwine in the bigger one.
It also tells its story in interesting ways. The opening five minutes should be shown in screenwriting class, and while its ending will bother some, it comes at exactly the right point before the film wears out its welcome. Its also going to leave you thinking.
There's little to fault here. While its not flashy or stylised, Three Billboards features good, solid direction of an auteur in full control of his storytelling powers and equipped with the perfect cast to tell his tale.
Sorry for the long-winded title, but it was the best I could come up with.
Anyway, if you live in Warrnambool or surrounds, we only have one legit cinema, and gods bless 'em, they do a bang-up job and endeavour to get as many non-blockbuster, non-superhero-smash-'em-ups as the distributors allow them to. Warrnambool would be a far lesser place to live without the good folks at Capitol Cinema. Support them.
But if you need a little more to top up your cinematic addictions, here's a quick guide to what the region's film groups and alternative cinemas are screening in 2019. I'll try to keep this as updated as possible. Bookmark this, y'all.
F Project Cinema screen one feature and one doco per month at the Mozart Hall in Warrnambool (all screenings are at 7.30pm):
Carol - February 13 Westwind: Djalu's Legacy - February 27 Phantom Thread - March 13 I Am Not Your Negro - March 27 The Insult - April 10 RBG - April 24 Room - May 8 Grace Jones: Bloodlight + Bami - May 22 Get Out - June 12 McQueen - June 26 The Square - July 10 Gurrumul - July 24
The Esplanade Cinema in Dennington is screening a mix of classics and recent gems (all screenings are at 7pm). No screenings are listed at this point.
Corangamite Film Society screens one film a month at the Killara Centre in Camperdown (all screenings are at 7.30pm):
Don't Tell - February 7 The Women On The 6th Floor - March 7 Isle Of Dogs - April 4 Goodbye Christopher Robin - May 2 Departures - June 6
Port Fairy Film Society screens a couple of movies a month at the Reardon Theatre in Port Fairy.
(MA15+) ★★★★★ Director: Ari Folman. Cast: Ari Folman, Miki Leon, Ori Sivan, Yehezkel Lazarov, Ronny Dayag, Shmuel Frenkel, Zahava Solomon, Ron Ben-Yishai, Dror Harazi.
"T'was a dark and stormy night...."
War is hell, or so the well-worn cliché goes.
But war is also strange. It is brutal. It can be repetitive, disconnected from reality, and absurd. It even has weirdly, disturbingly beautiful moments dotted among the savagery and insanity.
War is also something people try desperately to forget. Ironically, it's something we should always remember so that we might stop doing it.
Waltz With Bashir is about war, and as a result, it explores all those aforementioned things. Specifically it is about the Lebanon War of 1982, in which Israel invaded Lebanon under the pretence of hunting down Palestine Liberation Organisation forces operating in southern Lebanon.
More specifically, it's about filmmaker Ari Folman's struggles to remember his own involvement as a teen soldier in the war, and in particular the Sabra and Shatila massacre, in which thousands of civilians were murdered by an Israeli-allied militia. Folman is haunted by a vision he can't explain and begins tracking down his old war buddies in an attempt to piece together his part in the atrocities.
While it is a documentary, and all the more powerful for the essence of truth at its core, Folman's genius move is to animate it - a rare but not unheard-of gambit. Using a combination of Flash animation, traditional hand-drawn animation, and 3D computer techniques, the director and his team turn the recollections and re-enactments of the war into visually stunning works of art.
It's animated style is in many ways a metaphor for Folman's own memory. The heavily stylised figures moving awkwardly against almost-monochromatic backgrounds help cushion us from the reality of what is taking place, much like how Folman's patchy recollections insulate him from his own past. It makes it easier for Folman to deal with, just as the animation makes the events somewhat more palatable for the audience to watch. It's also a clever device to allow the audience to see things that would perhaps be too brutal, or impossible to film, or that wouldn't have passed the censors - shooting a dog, dying horses, the death of a child soldier, the slaughter of a family, a soldier watching graphic pornography in a seized Lebanese mansion.
But as the film progresses, the beautiful animation can only do so much to save us from the reality of what we are seeing, and the savagery gets under our skin. When the veil of artifice is finally removed and the computer-aided drawings give way to actual news footage from the time, the result is utterly devastating. In the context of everything that has gone before, that scant minute or so of real life at the film's end is one of the most powerful gut-punches I've ever seen in a film. After nearly 90 minutes of somewhat softening the blow through a beautiful and brilliant stylistic choice, the ending is a reminder of how real it all is. It's a cruel and overwhelming turn of events that will leave you shattered.
The animation also allows Folman to sub in a couple of actors for the former soldiers who didn't want to speak "on camera", without it breaking from the documentary approach. It's visual delivery is also well suited to the more hallucinatory moments, such as Folman's weird vision at the core of the plot, or his friend's dream of floating away from the war on a large voluptuous sea-woman. These elements slot in perfectly, without breaking the tone of the film, despite their fantastical nature.
Waltz With Bashir finds a strong-enough mystery at its core to pull the viewer along, and it's smart enough to end right before tedium can set in. While it lacks some context to its event, it's easy enough to catch up, and will leave you wanting to know more about this largely forgotten military action.
It will also leave you utterly devastated. Consider yourself warned.
I watched Waltz With Bashir at a screening hosted by F Project Cinema in Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia. Here's what's coming up at future FPC screenings at the Mozart Hall (all screenings are at 7.30pm):
Wake In Fright - February 14
Inside Out: The People's Art Project - February 28
The Hottest 100 is back. It's on a new date (January 27) this year, but it promises to deliver yet another fine slice of what triple j listeners deem to be the best songs of 2017.
It will also bring with it much debate. There will be the typical whingeing from people who don't even listen to triple j anymore and who preferred it in the '90s when they played more Pearl Jam and Chili Peppers and who haven't caught up to the fact that triple j is the national youth broadcaster and thus keeps up with the youth and not ageing morons whose musical tastes haven't moved with the times. Sheesh.
Anyway, the results of the world's biggest musical democracy are just days away, and triple j posted recently that "there’s only a couple hundred votes separating some of the songs in the Top 5". Note the inclusion of the words "some of". That could be giving credence to popular theory that this year's countdown is a one-horse race - that Kendrick Lamar's Humble is way out in front, and it's left to the minor placings to be separated by only a couple hundred votes. Otherwise they would have said "there's only a couple hundred votes separating the top songs". Right?
But how do we know Kendrick Lamar is going to win without being subjective and qualitative and using terms like "banger"?
Well, it's easier than ever to spot a winner these days. There are three key indicators - the bookies, social media vote counter 100 Warm Tunas, and ARIA chart performance. The first two are somewhat obvious and are usually pretty close (although 100 Warm Tunas said Amy Shark was gonna win last year).
The chart thing is like the icing on the cake, but it's more relevant than some people realise. If a song hasn't charted, it's less likely to win the Hottest 100. To wit:
The last time a Hottest 100 winner failed to impact the ARIA charts was 2007 (Muse's Knights Of Cydonia).
Only five times (out of 24) has the Hottest 100 winner failed to chart in Australia (Knights Of Cydonia, Wish You Well, No One Knows, These Days, No Aphrodisiac).
The past six Hottest 100 winners reached the ARIA top 10.
Seven Hottest 100 winners have been ARIA #1s (Never Be Like You, Thrift Shop, Somebody That I Used To Know, Sex On Fire, Pretty Fly For A White Guy, Wonderwall, Zombie).
So let's look at why Humble will win, and who else is likely to fight it out for second place.
Kendrick Lamar - Humble
Odds: $1.50 (favourite) 100 Warm Tunas: #1 ARIA Charts: #2 Why it will win: The bookies say he's gonna win. 100 Warm Tunas say he's gonna win (by a long way). Lamar was also the eighth most played artist on triple j in 2017. Listeners voted his album Damn to #3 on triple j's best albums of 2017. If ever there was a year for Lamar, it's this year, and if ever there was a track, it's this one. Humble is Lamar's highest charting solo track in Australia (#2) and spent 40 weeks in the charts. That means that even if people weren't listening to triple j, they still had a good shot of hearing this song.
Why it won't win: Kendrick Lamar has a bit of history to make to win. A hip hop song has only ever won once (Macklemore & Ryan Lewis in 2012 with Thrift Shop and some people don't even count that one as a victory for hip hop because they say it's a novelty song). Also no act has ever won after placing #2 in a previous year, which Lamar did with King Kunta in 2015. Lamar would also be breaking a streak of Aussie winners that goes back to 2012. But here's the big one - no African-American act has ever won the Hottest 100. History is just waiting to be made.
Gang Of Youths - The Deepest Sighs, The Frankest Shadows
Odds: $7 (outright second favourite) 100 Warm Tunas: #3 ARIA Charts: N/A Why it will win: Gang Of Youths were the biggest Aussie band of the year, and the last four winners have been Aussies. Their album was voted #1 in triple j's best album poll for 2017. And they won best album, best group, and best rock album at the ARIAs. If GOY were gonna have a year, this should probably be their year. If Humble wasn't in the running, a GOY track would be a good shot for #1.
Why it won't win: But which one?Aside from Humble having this sewn up, Gang Of Youths supporters have been spreading their votes far and wide. 100 Warm Tunas predicts four GOY tracks in the countdown, all in the top 40. None of those singles charted (although the album debuted at #1 and has been in the charts for the past 21 weeks) so it almost feels random as to which of the many great tracks from Go Farther In Lightness makes the Hottest 100. In fact in recent days 100 Warm Tunas swapped this one and Let Me Down Easy for the second and third position. It may be case of having too many horses in the one race and them all getting in each other's way.
Gang Of Youths - Let Me Down Easy
Odds: $12 (outright fifth favourite) 100 Warm Tunas: #2 ARIA Charts: N/A Why it will win: As above.
Why it won't win: As above. On a sidenote, 100 Warm Tunas is predicting a 2-3 finish for Gang Of Youths. Should this happen, it will be the highest consecutive tracks by an artist, beating the 3-4 finish of The Offspring in 1994. And if they can get three in the top 10 (What Can I Do If The Fire Goes Out? is a likely third candidate) they will be just the third act to do so (after Chet Faker in 2014 and Powderfinger in 2003). For the record, the bookies are predicting a 2-5 finish.
Methyl Ethel - Ubu
Odds: $15 (equal sixth favourite)
100 Warm Tunas: #4 ARIA Charts: N/A Why it will win: This wonderfully weird and catchy pop-rock tune is a dark horse that's bound to go top 10 - bookies have it at #7, Warm Tunas it at #4. But it's such a long shot the biggest question will be "can it reach #2?". Unless it's the year of the upset, this won't win. Or get #2, sadly. Great tune though,
Why it won't win: As above.
Lorde - Green Light
Odds: $10 (equal third favourite) 100 Warm Tunas: #8 ARIA Charts: #4 Why it will win: Robbed in 2013 when Riptide beat Royals, this could be the year for revenge for Lorde. She was the most played artists on triple j last year, and listeners voted her album #2 in the annual end-of-year album poll. She's been in the countdown five times, always in the top 50. Bookies and Warm Tunas rate it highly. It's got crossover appeal. She's due. It's going to be tough to topple Humble, but if any song can do it, it's Green Light. If she wins, she'll be the first solo female to top the countdown.
Why it won't win: Except, unfortunately, she won't win. As it was in 2013, it's a tough year. Royals and Green Light could have won in just about any other year - either song could have taken done Hoops, that's for sure. But neither could take down Humble.
Khalid - Young Dumb & Broke
Odds: $10 (equal third favourite) 100 Warm Tunas: #20 ARIA Charts: #4 Why it will win: Every kid graduating high school this year is voting for this. It's got crossover appeal - this song's been all over the mainstream, while Khalid was also in triple j's top 50 most played artists in 2017. There's also a certain "Hottest 100" quality to the song - the countdown's upper echelons have been peppered with quirky pop singalongs like this since Asshole won the first yearly poll in 1993.
Why it won't win: This is one of those weird ones where the bookies rate it way higher (#4) than 100 Warm Tunas (#20). The right answer is probably somewhere in the middle (certainly not higher).
Brockhampton - Sweet
Odds: $22 (equal ninth favourite) 100 Warm Tunas: #7 ARIA Charts: N/A Why it will win: If this is the year hip hop tops the poll, then this is a likely candidate should the whole Humble thing be a furphy. It was played heavily on triple j in the lead up to voting opening, so could be fresh in people's minds. It's also one of the most interesting hip hop songs in recent years, and Brockhampton are one of the most interesting hip hop groups for a while... if that's worth anything. Why it won't win: As great and fun as it is, it's probably only going to be the second best hip hop song of the year in the eyes (ears?) of triple j listeners.
Angus & Julia Stone - Chateau
Odds: $15 (equal sixth favourite) 100 Warm Tunas: #6 ARIA Charts: N/A Why it will win: They've got form, obviously, although if they won, they'd be just the second act to top the poll twice. Mind you, this song is one hundred times more interesting than Big Jet Plane, so who knows, maybe they can do it again. Everyone who went on a Jucy Van roadtrip up the East Coast of Australia to find themselves in 2017 probably voted for this.
Why it won't win: The days of winning twice are long gone. And this song hasn't been as ubiquitous as their previous winner. On a side note, I predict this is the last time we talk about Angus & Julia Stone in the context of maybe winning the Hottest 100 for a second time.
Post Malone feat. 21 Savage - Rockstar
Odds: $19 (outright eighth favourite)
100 Warm Tunas: #81
ARIA Charts: #1
Why it will win: This guy is massive at the moment and triple j have played him. He's got four singles in the ARIA top 50 at the moment, including this previous #1.
Why it won't win: This is one of those weird ones where Sportsbet says the song is top 10, but a week ahead of voting closing it wasn't even in 100 Warm Tunas (it's now #81). Last year, the bookies did the same thing with Temper Trap, but 100 Warm Tunas were in the right. So this won't win. It won't even be in the top 50, unless something is properly broken with 100 Warm Tunas' methodology (which is unlikely) or something strange happens. Despite topping the ARIA charts, this hasn't been a big enough blip on triple j's radar, so don't expect too much.
Pnau - Go Bang
Odds: $31 (equal 14th favourite)
100 Warm Tunas: #5 ARIA Charts: #13 Why it will win: Pnau have been dropping Hottest 100-friendly bangers for a decade now and have never cracked the top 10 (they reached #11 last year with Chameleon). This might be their best chance yet. The song has only been out for less than two months, so it might be fresh enough to stir up some votes. But....
Why it won't win: ... there has never been a winner released in December, and only ever one released in November (Pretty Fly). So history says, Go Bang is too fresh.
Thundamentals feat. Mataya - Sally
Odds: $27 (equal 13th favourite)
100 Warm Tunas: #9 ARIA Charts: N/A Why it will win: Thundamentals were the second-most played act on triple j last year, so that's gotta count for something. And this song is fun. Why it won't win: The bookies didn't rate it much (it was at $501 last week), but its shortened dramatically. Not enough though.
The Smith Street Band - Birthdays
Odds: $22 (equal ninth favourite) 100 Warm Tunas: #12 ARIA Charts: N/A Why it will win: Tenth most played on triple j in 2017. Album #4 in the listener's poll. They almost cracked the top 20 last year. Lot of love out there for these guys. Why it won't win: I'm pretty sure too many people hate the sound of this guy's voice for them ever to win. Same reason Jebediah never won.
Baker Boy feat. Yirrmal - Marryuna
Odds: $31 (equal 14th favourite) 100 Warm Tunas: #10 ARIA Charts: N/A Why it will win: It would be a dream come true for triple j if this won. Imagine that - the year they move the countdown away from Australia Day as a show of respect to the First Australians, an indigenous artist Unearthed by triple j wins the Hottest 100. It won't happen, but it would be incredible if it did. Why it won't win: Happy to be corrected on this, but the best placing by an indigenous act is #16 (I think), when AB Original & Dan Sultan set off a "youthquake" last year with the track January 26. Baker Boy would have to make some pretty serious history to win.
Vera Blue - Regular Touch
Odds: $201
100 Warm Tunas: #11 ARIA Charts: N/A Why it will win: Probably the perfect time for this ode to all the single ladies. Vera Blue's album was #8 on the listener's poll and she was the 15th most played artist on triple j last year. She also helped Illy into the top 10 last countdown by featuring on Papercuts. It would be nice to see her do it on her own this year. Why it won't win: Great song, great timing, but too many other big songs going on. Would be good to see it sneak into the top 10, but that's as much as you should expect from Regular Touch.
Gang Of Youths - What Can I Do If The Fires Goes Out?
Odds: $401
100 Warm Tunas: #15 ARIA Charts: N/A Why it will win: As above. But I wanted to include this one because in my head this is the Gang Of Youths song that should be #2 or #3. Is it possible I'm right and 100 Warm Tunas is wrong? No. It is not possible. Why it won't win: As above.
The Killers - The Man
Odds: $41 (outright 20th favourite)
100 Warm Tunas: #17 ARIA Charts: N/A Why it will win: Kinda strange seeing these guys pop up here again, like it's one for the oldies. These dudes are all time. Their first appearance was way back in 2004 when they reached #4 with Somebody Told Me (they had three songs in the top 40 that year). Could this be a win for the old-timers? Why it won't win: Probably not. It's a great tune but it feels like the last time we'll see them in the countdown - they haven't been in the Hottest 100 for nine years. triple j usually stop playing bands about this point in their career. Check out Foo Fighters - this is likely to be (according to 100 Warm Tunas) the first time they've released an album without a single song making the countdown.
Vance Joy - Lay It On Me
Odds: $26 (equal 11th favourite)
100 Warm Tunas: #14 ARIA Charts: #18 Why it will win: You could argue this song is better than Riptide. Why it won't win: But it hasn't been as ubiquitous or zeitgeisty as his previous winner. And as said before, the days of winning twice seem to be over.
Alex Lahey - Every Day's The Weekend
Odds: $34 (equal 17th favourite)
100 Warm Tunas: #21 ARIA Charts: N/A Why it will win: It would be great to see this win, or I Haven't Been Taking Care Of Myself (#19 on 100 Warm Tunas). Alex Lahey is awesome and triple j love her (33rd most played artist of 2017) and triple j listeners love her (sixth best album of the year).
Why it won't win: As much as this is a belter, it just won't get there.
(M) ★★ Director: Trish Sie. Cast: Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Anna Camp, Brittany Snow, Hailee Steinfeld, John Lithgow, Hana Mae Lee, Ester Dean, Chrissie Fit, John Michael Higgins, Elizabeth Banks, Matt Lanter, Guy Burnett, DJ Khaled, Ruby Rose.
There is a moment when Rebel Wilson's character Fat Amy punches a shark (not a real one). Some time later, the movie jumps one. It's one of many problems facing this disappointing trilogy ender.
Pitch Perfect 3 is a great example of many things, such as "milking an idea dry", "the uncalled-for second sequel", "continueddiminishing returns", "the wearing out of a welcome", and "not knowing when to stop".
It's a shame. The first film was great, the second was okay, but the third one is bad enough to run the risk of damaging the brand. If you're only here for a handful of laughs and the singing bits, by all means, fill your boots. Even then you'll still be disappointed, as the laughs are fewer and the charm of the Bellas' a capella schtick has worn thin.
But the biggest problem is the story. In a desperate search for a third movie plot, these old college friends have a reunion, realise their lives are broken, and that putting the band back together for a singing tour of Europe is what is needed to put meaning back into their existences.
Naturally there is a competition element to it all (at least they kind of poke fun at that), but because the main story comes up desperately short in running time we get a subplot involving Fat Amy's dad (Lithgow) that sends the whole thing over the edge into bizarre new territory (think really bad spy movie). Oh and it turns out at the end most of their lives aren't broken anyway, so what was the point of all this again?
While the action diversion is as dodgy as Lithgow's Aussie accent, you at least have to give the film points for trying something new (even though it doesn't work) because a lot of this is tired. Beca (Kendrick), while still a great character, is given an existential crisis that feels similar to the one she faced in Pitch Perfect 2, and the idea of life after the Bellas is again central to the film as it was in Pitch Perfect 2. Plus the whole competition thing is so stale the film kind of drops it by the third act and instead is content to watch the whole plot slide off the rails. Shoehorning in Higgins and Banks for their witty commentary is a real stretch and a good example of how far this film is going to recapture old glories without having a decent way to do it.
To its credit, Pitch Perfect 3 again manages to do its final musical moment right - a spine-tingling version of George Michael's Freedom that brings the house down. It also gets a few good laughs in, mostly thanks to Wilson and Kendrick, and for two acts at least it hits the tone that made the first two films so successful.
But its fading charms are not enough to save this from being a disappointing send-off for a series that didn't know when to stop.
