Do you know who Mike Tompkins is? I know, strange way to start Women Who Wow Wednesday. He’s the brainchild to the brilliant music videos featuring his mouth. I know, again, strange way to describe what he does. The best description I can come up with is he creates music—vocals and instruments—entirely with his voice and mouth. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s his cover video he produced for Pitch Perfect called Starships by Nicki Minaj. So far, his YouTube channel has had 180,000,000+ views. Yeah, popular guy. Did I mention he’s a fellow Canadian?
The reason I bring him up is his connection with Pitch Perfect, the 2012 musical comedy starring Anna Kendrick in the leading role as Beca, the outcast who’s trying to find her way in college. I won’t spoil the movie—it’s too good to spoil. You’ll just have to see it yourself.
In the film, Beca has a tough time on campus. She doesn’t really fit into any of the student cliques, and the only person who could appreciate her talent happens to ignore her work. But she trudges onward and doesn’t give up on college life. In fact, in an awkward scene reminiscent of Psycho, someone finally recognizes her talent, but she manages to thwart the stalker’s advances. The word stalker is such a harsh word. Let’s replace that with the word admirer.
Not sure what she’s gotten herself into, Beca manages to blend into her surroundings as one of the Barden Bellas, an acapella group specializing in making music with their mouths. She soon befriends the other girls in the group, except the lead, Aubrey (Anna Camp). This is no secret because Beca finds Aubrey doesn’t really get along with everyone in the group anyway. Beca decides to roll with it and works her buns off to make the Bellas a success.
Only, what no one counted on is that the Bellas lack of originality. This, in turn, suppresses Beca’s creativity and makes her regret joining the group. Adding to her misery, she grows quite close to Jesse (Skylar Astin), a lead singer with her competition, *spoiler begin* but then devalues his friendship in a fit of annoyance *spoiler end*.
What drives Beca is her willingness to be different. She observes everyone through the eyes of an outsider and can never really reconcile the fact that others can’t see their inability to break free from their cliques. If Beca had her way, they’d all wear different things. They’d all talk different. And they’d all sing different.
Pitch Perfect is a funny movie and Beca fits perfectly as the black sheep welcoming the audience into her world.
RANGER MARTIN AND THE ALIEN INVASION, on sale October 21.
Have you seen Pitch Perfect? What did you think of the movie and of Beca?
Looking to God 
Don’t know Mike Tompkins, should check it out. But ‘Pitch Perfect’ was great! I don’t normally go into these musical movies now that I’m older, it’s a mood thing. But this is a great choice of WWWW, she grows at the end of the movie. 🙂
Love Beca and completely addicted to Pitch Perfect. And yes I do know Mike Tompkins on Youtube. He has some pretty awesome vids 🙂
My girls and I love this movie to death! We could live without the vomit scenes, but other than that it is amazing. The girls all like to practice the Cup Song and we sing the songs on road trips. Anna Kendrick is one of our favorites. P.S….I really hope you are watching Veronica Mars.
Funny you should mention her. Veronica Mars is up for this weekend’s viewing pleasure. I’m really looking forward to it!
Great! Please don’t just watch the movie, though. You really need to watch a few episodes of the show to fully appreciate how awesome Veronica is. 🙂
Ha! Watched the movie and a few episodes from Season 1. Love it! I have a post ready and it’ll be on the site within the next few weeks. Thanks for the suggestion! 😉
I love that movie… it’s hilarious and has great music… which I also love that music video that dude did… that had to be hard to actually have that many different people’s videos blend together to make the song… a cappella is just amazing as it is… to make it sound like instruments when there are none is just incredible…
Haven’t seen it yet, but Kendra is one of my favorites
another one I haven’t seen…I have a running list now though and I’ve added this one : )
Do you ever take suggestions for women that wow? Does it have to be an actress or her part? If I may….Melissa Joan Heart is an amazing actress and role model. Her parts in Clarissa Explains It All and then Sabrina The Teenage Witch were STELLAR! I think she’s amazing and I’m proud to hand her down to my daughter that can’t get enough. Just sayin 😉
I’m always on the lookout for future Women Who Wow. Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll keep it in mind!
Sounds like a good movie.
Sounds fab! It’s hard enpugh at that age even knowing what makes you you and staying true to that.
Pitch Perfect was an absolutely amazing movie. I think that Beca was a great choice for Women Who Wow! Now we can only hope that the sequel to Pitch Perfect at least lives up to its predecessor, if it isn’t able to surpass it.
I remember the sixties when we became a nation of hippies. We talked different and dressed different but then we became the same. We all looked alike with our tyedye shirts and beads. We all used the same lingo and we all had the same thoughts on pot. We became a strata of people and we looked down on anyone who was not in our group.