Kevin Marshall's America
“Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” **** (out of 5 stars)
Directed by: Edgar Wright
Starring: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Ellen Wong
“Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” surprised me.
I was hesitant to see it. About a year ago, I borrowed the first volume of the comic after my roommate and several others heaped endless praise on it. I read it and came out feeling unsatisfied, bored, and slightly annoyed. Much of it played to the sensibilities (if you can call it that) and humor of gamer culture, which is not alien to me but is wholly unappealing
To me it read as one of the worst examples of the prevalent geekiness that has invaded and usurped art and good taste; it’s the same mindset that has made the San Diego Comic-Con a cultural milestone, advanced websites that put themselves forth as review and critique sites but are little more than shills, and transformed much of modern art into one stupid visual pun after another.
Then I saw this film.
It started and immediately established the theme of video-game visual puns, and I thought “oh no.” Then something happened: the cast brought a sense of earnestness and depth to their performances that lent something more to these on-screen shenanigans. All of the over-the-top effects and quick cut-aways became secondary to what the characters were going through and what they were doing. Then when it did focus entirely on the fight scenes and visual style, I was actually entertained.
How’d this happen?
Simple: it’s a well made film that transcends the expectations of a small but rabid fanbase. On the surface it gives them everything they want: awkward humor, an emotionally damaged love interest with leggings and wild hair colors, and heavy-handed references to gamer culture. It’s all done, however, as a shrouded critique of the snarkiness, entitlement, and pathological need for instant gratification that runs so deep in geekdom.
In a moment central to the film's theme, Pilgrim attempts to relate to his dream girl through exploring his own interests...and fails.
Scott Pilgrim doesn’t know what he wants. He likes video games and he likes girls, and he tries to combine the two with disastrous consequences. He also likes playing in his band, but none of them carry enough confidence or self-respect to get anywhere. Their precious self-deprecation, an attitude celebrated by its target audience, is an albatross to their creative and professional success.
Their sole fan is Scott’s new girlfriend, who’s a 17-year-old Catholic schoolgirl (much to the chagrin and disgust of everyone around him). Then he meets Romanoa Flowers, who is literally the girl of his dreams. Cue angst, heartbreak, and a cowardice in ending his almost non-relationship with Knives (the 17-year-old schoolgirl) that ultimately ends up hurting innocent parties.
From there the film explores Scott’s battles with The League of Evil Exes, a collection of seven of Ramona’s exes that Scott must defeat in order to continue dating her. It’s a heavy-handed and almost hackneyed metaphor for dating in your twenty-somethings, which makes you want to immediately dismiss it.
But, like all great stories, it’s not the concept or the end result that matters, but the route it takes to get there.
The protagonist faces off against a hipster geek, prime enemy of both himself and the film's success.
Film nerds have delighted in the film’s failure, noting that it’ll barely cling onto the top five in the box office for its opening weekend. They’ve also obsessed over the idea of its audience being limited. All of those criticisms are unfounded on a technical or artistic standpoint. These same folks have also derided its “music video direction,” a phrase that keeps appearing in critiques written by self-professed experts that have absolutely no idea what the phrase itself means.
Unfortunately, like so many other things in geek culture, there’s no letting something like good taste or objectivity stand in the way of snark. Which is a shame, because if they sat down and analyzed the film for its own merits rather than reviewing it in the context of the Comic Con hype and its fandom, they’d find a difficult project that was handled artfully by director Edgar Wright (“Hot Fuzz,” “Shaun of the Dead”). They’d also find that the crux of the story isn’t contained in its tricks, but in the message it carries to its target audience. The film finds all those things that these twenty-something geeks enjoy and drool over, then uses them to relay the importance of viewing human interaction outside the context of your own interests and obsessions while putting a higher degree of importance on your friends and lovers rather than the latest high-budget super-hero flick, video game, or obscure band you discovered.
“Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” will probably leave theaters in a scant few weeks and make up its lost revenue on DVD. More importantly, it’s a film that will be looked back on far more kindly in hindsight. It will become a cult film that will be held up as an example of the dangers of knee-jerk critique and celebrated for what it is: the first film in years to actually speak to a generation in a way they understand to deliver messages and lessons they urgently need.
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13 Responses to “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” Celebrates & Condemns Geek Culture
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But it was your reluctance to see it in the first place, shared by millions, apparently, that ultimately sank it at the box office. well not YOUR reluctance, since you did see it. But how you felt about it going in kept people away in droves.
I have to say that I actually enjoyed Scott Pilgrim v the World when I saw it at Crossgates Sunday afternoon. With all the 8-bit sound effects and Batman-esque screen onomatopoeia throughout the film, I felt it paid homage to gamer culture and added a touch of snarkiness to it as well. Yeah, Michael Cera can’t play any other role than the twee angsty Michael Cera (sort of like asking Jack Black to play a role that doesn’t involve him being Jack Black), but the whole over-the-top fights between Cera’s character and the league of evil exes is like a video game come to life. Good stuff.
At least it kept me entertained enough so that I’m not counting the days till Tron: Legacy comes out… :)
This is one that I’m looking forward to renting on Blu Ray. Michael Cera has screwed me over way too many times since Superbad.
The big one from this weekend was The Expendables. You need to hurry to a theater to see this thing. Your brain will melt from all of the superposition of simultaneous awesomeness and terrible.
I’m pretty sure part of its box office tankage came from the fact that they offered so many free screenings leading up to the premiere to it’s primary fan base. Hmm. Tough choice, even for a lazy hipster geek…
I think they might have messed up the release of this film. I tried to see it over the weekend but every theater had 2 evening showings that were not convenient. With expendables playing every half hour it didn’t leave much room for the geekiness of Scott Pilgrim. Maybe if they pushed it back into the September box-office crapfest we have this year it would have done better. Maybe it wasn’t summer movie material.
JessMarshall – Right. It struck me that so many people had seen it leading up to the film’s release. Which does something for word of mouth buzz, I suppose, but those people aren’t buying tickets either.
Henchmen24 - Good points, all.
I think, too, that there’s a greater danger in supposing that a movie’s fanbase will market the movie for you. Granted, I don’t watch as much TV during the Summer, but I still never saw any ads for the movie. Anyone else?
Most critics seem to like it; it’s got an 81% at Rotten Tomatoes, which isn’t too far off from Inception. I really enjoyed it myself, though I didn’t contribute to its box office take, having seen it at a free advance screening. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I had some faith, as Edgar Wright hasn’t disappointed me yet.
Kevin – I watch more TV than I should (even during the summer) and I saw the commercial incessantly, especially MTV.
You should give the comic series another shot too. The thing I disliked most about the first installment — the fact that the main character is utterly unlikeable — actually plays pretty well into the story as it proceeds (as you know, having seen the movie). The ending of the comic is more satisfying too…you get more of a sense of growth.
what about the Expenables? Every tough guy (old and young), lot’s of stuff blowing up….I NEED to see this…..
There’s a pretty strong contingent of people I see online who trash it as too “hipster.” To me, it’s not the stuff you like that makes you a hipster so much as your attitude toward it. Hitchcock and Kurosawa are great filmmakers, but if you watch them for the sole purpose of being able to say that you love Hitchcock and Kurosawa and with the hopes that it will make you into a better person than the people who still get a kick out of old Mike Meyers movies, then you’re a hipster. I feel the same way about people who praise Silver Age comic books and marathon old episodes of The Superfriends. Neither movies nor video games, nor art of any kind should form the basis of your identity (which was kind of the point of Scott Pilgrim as well). If I listened to people who thought so, I never would have seen the Crow out of fear that it would make me “too goth.” I never would have seen “Igby Goes Down” for fear that it would make me “too emo.” I never would have seen “The Dark Knight” for fear that it would turn me “too juggalo” (which is a shame because I hear the juggalos get the best helicopter rides). People who have any sense of identity shouldn’t worry about what people will think of them for liking the stuff that they like. Thankfully, this isn’t a movie that reinforces that mentality. The geek references never slow the plot down long enough for people who don’t understand them to feel stupid. And the important themes are universal.
One thing that I read in another review of the film that I didn’t realize until reading that (I’m slow, OK?) was that while the League of Evil Exes seems superhero-esque on first appearance, each ex represents a nagging worry everyone runs into when meeting someone new, some form of baggage to deal with. It’s a subtle and brilliant nuance to the whole thing.
Amazing movie, amazing soundtrack. Can’t wait to watch it again at Scotia Cinema, and then over and over again when goes to DVD.