American Pie
A cappella has made its mark all over the movie world across the years. In At the Movies we spotlight highlights and lowlights from the musical form we love in motion pictures.
This time, we spotlight American Pie.
American Pie’s Oz gets mixed up with jazz choir out of an interest in hooking up with choir chicks. The scheme both succeeds and fails—he gets the girl, but also gets more than he bargained for in the form of real feelings, en route to a real relationship that alters the course of his life.
Like the application of a cappella in so many films, American Pie starts out using the form in tongue-in-cheek fashion, portraying it as the realm for the goody-two-shoes kids that jock Oz doesn’t quite fit into. This first scene of a cappella has surprising layers, though. When Oz gets caught up in the music, and keeps scatting after the rest of the group has fallen silent, he shows not only an aptitude, but an unexpected passion for the music, which begins to show the audience the character himself has some layers.
Do you believe in magic?