Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)

I should have hated, or at least been bored to tears, by the movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. It’s full of stuff I usually couldn’t care less about, including video games, anime, evildoers with superpowers, ridiculously overloaded visual effects, vegans, slacker musician wannabes in their twenties, girls with fluorescent-colored hair, and awkward romances between those last two. Instead, much to my surprise, I found myself laughing throughout and enjoying this insane, inventively stylized comedy.

Michael Cera may be in danger of typecasting after numerous parts as the stumbling, romantically-challenged-yet-likable young dweeb, but it’s a role he seems born to play. As Scott Pilgrim, Cera starts in familiar territory as a 22-year-old unemployed Toronto native playing bass with three high school pals in a band named Sex Bob-omb. In fact, he used to date the drummer, Kim (Alison Pill), leaving her with a snarly, begrudging attitude, especially when he starts bringing his current girlfriend–a 17-year-old Catholic high school girl named Knives (Ellen Wong)–to band rehearsals. Everyone gossips and talks trash to try and steer them apart, including Scott’s sister Stacey (Up In The Air Oscar nominee Anna Kendrick) and his gay roommate Wallace (Kieran Culkin). But the young couple seem to bond over their mutual naivete and love for Dance Dance Revolution.

Then at a party, Scott literally meets the girl of his dreams, an aloof, doe-eyed, purple-haired enigma from New York named Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). After spending the night with her, Scott is in for real trouble. He now has to juggle Ramona with his current underage girlfriend-turned-groupie and try to keep them separate. He faces even more snarky commentary from his sister, friends, and others. Oh, and Ramona brings some unwelcome baggage into the relationship…in the form of seven “evil exes” whom Scott must defeat in order to be her boyfriend. Defeat as in fight to the death, or, as is more appropriate for this video game/movie mashup, “mortal kombat.”

If the premise conjures memories of the Uma Thurman flick My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World kicks that movie’s ass with just one clever reference thrown into the midst of a script that starts out amusing and grows funnier as it progresses. Towards the end, I was bellowing with laughter at both the dialogue and its delivery by the talented ensemble, anchored by Michael Cera’s skillful performance and comic timing. The casting for the film is terrific, with Mae Whitman–who played Cera’s always-forgotten girlfriend Ann on Arrested Development–as one of the “exes” he has to fight. And casting Jason Schwartzman as the ultimate villain? Genius. His outrage from having to swallow his gum during a fight is priceless.

Augmenting the hilarious script and cast is a nearly constant barrage of graphics that tie the film to both video arcade culture and the story’s origin as a graphic novel. I’ve never owned a home gaming console of any kind, and don’t like the violent fighting and shooting games so popular these days. However, I have been known to throw a few coins into arcade games on occasion–I even remember the first time I played a Pong game back in the early ’70s. Fortunately, the video game references seem to be mostly from the ’80s: for example, Scott tries to use the origin of the name “Pac-Man” as a pick-up line. Defeated foes disintegrate into coins and floating point scores like a Mario Bros. game. Even the Universal Studios logo and fanfare at the beginning of the film looks and sounds pixellated, as though it’s playing on an old 8-bit Atari. Other anachronistic touches include an often-used old streamline phone with a rotary dial in the handset, though I don’t remember them having such an electronic-sounding ring. No matter, this movie is so completely nuts that I just went with it.

The hyperkinetic visuals of this lunatic flick also include plenty of amusing titles and animations, including graphical renditions of sound effects such as “DING! DONG” animated on the screen whenever the doorbell rings. These graphics get a bit predictable by the end, but they’re effective at tethering the film to its comic book roots.

An occasional joke or bit falls flat (like a brief and odd inclusion of Seinfeld music in one scene), but director/co-writer Edgar Wright, creator of the already-classic comedy Shaun of the Dead, throws so much over-the-top mania into this movie that a few moments of weakness can be forgiven. Nearly every scene transition is stylized and unusual, from seamless edits between locations in mid-dialogue to multiple split-screen sequences. If nothing else, this movie deserves recognition for its editing when award season comes around. I must also offer kudos for the opening credit sequence, an art that’s largely faded away over the years. It’s refreshing, then, to find one so full-tilt crazy.

Sometimes I feel like an old fogy, such as when I seated myself next to a large group of young people to gauge their reactions to the film. But we all behaved the same once the lights were down, getting into the goofy graphics, giggling at Cera’s clever comedic skills, and finally just laughing out loud (regardless of whether our voices had dropped or not). Maybe I’m not such an old fogy after all. In Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, both sides end up winning.