Club Benefits
In the musical-comedy genre, the "Pitch Perfect" franchise is one of the form's most successful outputs, with the original 2012 flick earning $115.4 million worldwide against a $17 budget, spawning two sequels (2015's "Pitch Perfect 2" and 2017's "Pitch Perfect 3") and amplifying the Hollywood wattage of stars Anna Kendrick, Brittany Snow and Rebel Wilson.
And in the decade-plus since the collegiate comedy — which follows an all-female a cappella group as they work to beat a rival all-male group and win the International Collegiate A Cappella Championship — first hit theaters, it's endured as a fan favorite, proven by the recent resurgence of both "Pitch Perfect" and "Pitch Perfect 2" in the current Netflix top 10 list.
'Easy A'
In this sassy send-up of both a traditional high-school comedy and the 1850 Nathaniel Hawthorne novel "The Scarlet Letter," double Oscar winner Emma Stone plays 17-year-old Olive Penderghast, a clean-cut California teen who becomes the center of a schoolwide scandal when a sexual white lie about losing her virginity to a college boy starts spreading across campus. Soon enough, her classmates (Amanda Bynes, Aly Michalka) are turning against her, and the school board gets involved (including Thomas Haden Church as Olive's favorite teacher and Lisa Kudrow as the guidance counselor).
Unsurprisingly, Stone — who earned a Golden Globe nomination for her star-making performance — is characteristically hilarious and captivating here as a teen sharply subverting social hierarchies, sexual double standards and her peers' limiting expectations of her.
Watch "Easy A" on Prime Video now
'Sing Street'
If it's more plucky young performers you're after, click "Play" on this 2016 Irish charmer from John Carney (of "Once" and "Begin Again" fame), which revolves around 15-year-old Conor Lalor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) who forms a band — played by Mark McKenna, Percy Chamburuka, Conor Hamilton and Karl Rice — to escape his strained family life and impress a girl (Lucy Boynton) in 1980s South Dublin.
Packed with genuinely great bops — the fictional band's "Drive It Like You Stole It" was up for Best Song at the Critics' Choice Awards — and plenty of humor, "Sing Street" holds a stellar 95% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where critics praise it as "a feel-good musical with huge heart and irresistible optimism."
Watch "Sing Street" on Netflix now
'Bring It On'
If you loved watching the heated rivalry between the Barden Bellas and the Treblemakers in the "Pitch Perfect" movies, you'll positively cheer for the high-flying antagonism between the Rancho Carne Toros and the East Compton Clovers in the 2000 classic cheerleading comedy "Bring It On." Kirsten Dunst and Gabrielle Union play the dedicated captains of the respective high-school cheer squads as each team doggedly prepares for the big national competition down in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Dubbed the "'Citizen Kane' of cheerleader movies" by none other than Roger Ebert, the Peyton Reed-directed flick is a longtime favorite for its campy pep, its rousing athletic routines, its sharp social commentary and memorable performances from Dunst, Union and co-stars like Eliza Dushku, Jesse Bradford and Lindsay "Big Red" Sloane.
Watch "Bring It On" on Hulu now
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