By Nolan Feeney
Pitch Perfect 2 is a movie that takes a relatively low-stakes situation — collegiate a capella — and makes it feel like the most urgent matter in the world. “I find that really charming!” Anna Kendrick told TIME recently. “It doesn’t have to be like, the city’s going to blow up if we don’t defuse the bomb.” So when the actress stopped by Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show to promote the sequel, in theaters Friday, it was only right that she made a silly, pointless game feel as tense as a riff-off.
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Write to Nolan Feeney at nolan.feeney@time.com