Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010)

4.0

ACTION/COMEDY

U.S. Release Date: 08/13/10

Running Length: 112 Minutes

MPAA Classification: PG-13 (Violence, Profanity, Sexual Content)

Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Cast: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Brandon Routh, Alison Pill, Jason Schwartzman, Ellen Wong

Director: Edgar Wright

Screenplay: Michael Bacall & Edgar Wright, based on the graphic novel by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Cinematography: Bill Pope

Music: Nigel Godrich

U.S. Distributor: Universal Pictures

Review by: Carter Moulton

9/22/10

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is exactly what cinema needs right now, and I’ll explain a few of the reasons why.

1. The film is on acid, just like the modern media culture of today: It’s 2010, and it’s the first time I’m starting to sense that there is a generation younger than me—tween-city. Spectatorship is different than it was years ago, and society is functioning in a way in which one can watch a movie on TV while browsing the internet on his/her laptop while texting with the other hand. The editing and pacing in Scott Pilgrim feeds these adrenaline-thirsty hyperactives, never slowing down—save a few scenes between Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) and his love interest, Ramona (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). This is a good, new, and exciting film method that, if not overused (which it probably will be), could continue to provide capsules of excitement for audiences in the future.

2. It is not a sequel; it is not a remake.

3. It doesn’t care whether you get the references or not: In the film’s two-hour runtime, the video game and indie-rock-nerd-culture references stack up like pizza boxes at a frat house: Pokemon, Mario, Zelda, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Final Fantasy—even a random Seinfeld reference is thrown in for good measure. (For a complete list of video game references—there are currently 79—in Scott Pilgrim, check here.) An appropriate description of the visual identity of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is as follows: a graphic novel, video game, vinyl record, and film projector puréed in a blender. Oh, how Creamy!

Photo © Universal Pictures

Is Michael Cera still an awkward teenager? Yes, Cera is still Cera, but this has a different feel to it. I applauded him for his performance in Youth In Revolt, in which he proves that he is an actor capable of expressing different tones. Here, Scott Pilgrim is a character with a short fuse, an elitist young man who does what he wants. He’s more confident and more focused.

The storyline, based off Bryan Lee O'Malley’s graphic novel series, is straightforward and utterly ridiculous: Scott Pilgrim must defeat Ramona’s seven evil ex-boyfriends in order to win her forever. When I say defeat, I mean K.O.—Street Fighter style. Jason Schwartzman, the final boss of this video game movie, is slick as usual, often perking up facial muscles just to say: “I’m better than you.”—and he is. Director Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) deserves award-season recognition—I doubt he’ll get it—for his framing, conceptualization, and, simply, management of this frantic project. When Wright does slow things down, it becomes poetic; Ramona and Scott rock back and forth on snow-covered swings, into a frosted boy-likes-girl reverie. It’s beautiful, to see such a sharp, controlled contrast in a film that otherwise sweats caffeine through the screen.