CLIP
The clip starts at 1:14:24 and lasts until 1:21:26.
After the success of the first film, Pitch Perfect 2 makes the Barden Bellas deal with failure and roadblocks from the very beginning. What follows is a story about growing up, the future and the need for friendships and community.
After giving her all to the Bellas in the first film, Beca (Anna Kendrick) is left with the struggle of weighing up an excellent future career versus her current friendship group and her commitment to the Bellas. This allows Pitch Perfect 2 to not only contain some extremely catchy tunes, but also enough gravitas to have themes that will speak to every young person who watches it.
In the clip, we see the Bellas desperately attempting to rediscover their sound. The group’s feelings finally boil over and its members share their anger and frustrations. But after a surprise trap leads to some of the team realising what is truly important to them, the group can sit down around a campfire and be real friends. The campfire allows the Bellas to recommit to each other as a group and as supportive friends.
After showing the clip as a stimulus, break into small groups and discuss the following questions:
• Do you ever keep your thoughts and feelings from your close friends? Why?
• Are feelings always better off shared, or should some things be kept secret?
• How can your youth group be a better supportive community for each other?
• Was Beca right to put her future career ahead of the Bellas?
Read Proverbs 13:20, 18:24, 22:24–25, 27:5–6 together. It may be helpful to first give some context to the book of Proverbs and what it contains. Alternatively, you could give each group one Proverb to discuss and then feed back their findings to the larger group.
• What idea of friendship do we get from the Proverbs verses?
• What are the key characteristics of a Christian friendship?
• How honest are we about our feelings to God?
• Can a relationship with God be described as a ‘friendship’?
Pitch Perfect 2 is a great sequel with laughs, catchy songs and enough character progression for some deep discussions. Why not grab some popcorn, stick on the subtitles and have a sing-a-long version of the whole film with your youth group?
