Audiences: No Clue (what they're missing) → Edgar Wright: Gets It

Rating: 10/10 (27 August 2010)

It is always truly delightful to see a major motion picture take a real chance, blending a daringly new angle into a familiar template and culminating in a doubly enjoyable final product. Director Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is such a triumph, undertaking a cocktail of manic energy and charm, dazzling visuals, unassumingly quirky humour, while still boasting an unmistakable (albeit pixilated) heart. Nonetheless, the film's poor box office suggests that many audiences and/or distributors are finding the idea of the film alienating (too nerdy? Too stylized? Too young and hip? Too Canadian?). However, at the risk of being excessively blunt, such concerns are largely unwarranted and, for the most part, missing the point. For while Scott Pilgrim may seemingly the tailor made film for those old enough to remember classic Zelda yet young enough to still have played it, the film's true genius lies in its fundamental accessibility, hitting all the right notes to delight fans of Brian Lee O'Malley's graphic novels without alienating those unfamiliar with any variety of geekdom.
While video game and comic book adaptations have become quite common multiplex fare of late, there is still something that feels so fundamentally unique and crisp about a film set in a more overt overlap between 'reality' and the physics and credulity bending of the aforementioned media. Even just by considering how much astronomical thought and care were invested into the minutiae of the production (the film opens with an 8-bit, classic video game style Universal logo, and throwaway references to any number of cultural texts abound – watch for 'Launchpad McQuack'), the film boasts such a determined earnestness that it is nigh impossible not to love. Wright, expanding upon the same wild yet harnessed hilarity he exercised in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, strikes a perfect tone and pace, with quick cutting, hip dialogue and a potentially disjointed and episodic story flowing without a single stumble or hitch. Equally, the whimsical visual effects (ranging from electric bolts dancing across the screen when Pilgrim's band, Sex Bob-Omb, play, to visual sound effects punctuating brutal Evil-Ex battles, to throwaway touches such as a "pee bar") never threaten to overwhelm the story.
Yes, story. For, while the film may be an admittably hard sell (the protagonist must battle his love interest's Seven Evil Exes in wildly choreographed video game style fights to be with her? !), Scott Pilgrim is as far as can be from mere hyperactive, flashy cinematic noise. Instead, Wright continually draws the focus back to the emotional heart of the story, paradoxically seeking intrinsic realism through fantasy and achieving both the most and least believable film in ages. Tapping into the obsessions, neuroses and hang-ups of a lovelorn, confused, whiney, aimless, occasionally downright dislikeable yet always lovable 22 year old and vibrantly letting them loose on screen, Wright's film proves far more resonant and truthful than first glance would suggest. The film's set pieces, the battles with Ramona Flowers' evil exes, apart from being exhilarating blends of blinding choreography and visual trickery, ultimately prove cunningly symbolic vehicles for the characters' largely unresolved emotional conflicts being hashed out with the sort of gleeful violence any frustrated young adult is bound to want to wreak on their nearby environment. Between the stomping, hard rock score (much of it performed by the cast), Scott Pilgrim could prove one of the most cathartic movies ever.
Also, on a personal note, it is rather heartwarming to see an unabashedly Canadian big budget action movie, for once set in Toronto and not 'Toronto posing as New York'.
Nonetheless, all considered, it is the ensemble cast who truly elevate the film to its triumphant heights. Michael Cera, finally provided more nuance than his usual neurotic misfits, is perfectly cast as Scott Pilgrim, his nearly unmatchable comic timing and ability to bleed charm and charisma even at his most whiney, clueless and unsympathetic making Scott a supremely relatable and enjoyable emotional foil. Mary Elizabeth Winstead does a remarkable job of humanizing her idolized Ramona Flowers, as every time Flowers appears too aloof and distant to truly take to, Winstead's eyes radiate a heartbreaking sense of empathy and self-regret, culminating in a beautifully understated yet effective performance. Similarly, Ellen Wong alternates between irresistibly adorable, hilariously obsessive and quietly tragic as Scott's scorned high school girlfriend Knives, the three forming an unorthodox yet perfectly pitched romantic triangle.
As Pilgrim's 'supporting characters', Kieran Culkin just about steals the show as Scott's bemusedly detached gay roommate Wallace, Anna Kendrick chatters with comical scorn as his sister, and Mark Webber, Johnny Simmons and Alison Pill are side-splitting as Pilgrim's meager yet impressive band (Pill, in particular, being graced with one of the most hilarious deadpans in cinema history). On the opposing team, each Evil-Ex in turn chomp the scenery with delicious aplomb, with standouts being Chris Evans' unforgettable Hollywood meathead, Brandon Routh as a snappy vegan with mystical powers, and Jason Schwartzman epitomizing sleaze as a smarmy record producer, though Satya Bhabha wins extra points for delivering one of the most unexpected song and dance numbers in recent memory as Flowers' vindictive first boyfriend.
Apart from being effectively the most satisfying translation of O'Malley's graphic novels any fan could hope for, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World proves the film to beat in terms of fusing a bravely niche approach into good, old fashioned, accessible entertainment without ever sacrificing on edge, hilarity or even complexity and never compromised by its genre trappings. Near essential viewing and better on ever watch, Wright delivers a true KO of a film, if ever there was one.
-10/10