51st Post Guest Blog

Many thanks to Turner for letting me squat in his blog for a session as part of his 50 post celebration. Turner asked me to review a new release that I've been going on about for a good year or so now and finally saw on opening night. It turns out I'm quite poor at writing concise reviews so view if you will, my full thoughts on a Top 3 of 2010 contender:

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - Recommended

Last Wednesday Scott Pilgrim finally opened in the UK, a few weeks behind its poor opening in the US where the film disappointingly and unexpectedly bombed. Major shame, because this film deserved to be appreciated.

Let's cover the basic plot of the film. Based on the underground comic book series, Scott Pilgrim sees Michael Cera as the titular hero character coasting through his early 20s, slacking around with his band and dating a 17 year old high school girl named Knives Chau. He falls in love with a mystery new girl in town called Ramona Flowers and the movie follows them getting together. Problem is to be together Scott is required to beat her 7 evil exes in fights to the death.

Sound like a mix of a feasible but complicated indie flick, and a potentially gruesome dating movie! But the films style is a homage to 90s 8-bit computer games. You pick that up straight away when the Universal logo comes up. Awesome. When the fights happen they are cartoonish, OTT, and so impressive and continuously inventive it's amazing to watch. It's definitely a comic book movie, more so than any comic movie that's come before it. Words pop off the screen, the stylistic tics of the comic book remain intact, even including some original Bryan O'Malley art work and lettering in parts. But interestingly the comic was in itself a mix of odes to old school computer games, and the indie music scene in Toronto. These run deeply through the film as a result.

The film clearly shows its influences, for those who know what they're looking for. The computer games references range from the sublimely subtle (Great Fairy Fountain theme from Zelda playing in a daydream? Amazing) to the cringingly try hard ("What do you play?" "Zelda mostly"). There's so much more, not just in terms of throw away lines but in visual style during the fights, and amazing digital effects. If you want to investigate further see here.

What really makes this film work is the music though. Scott plays in a band, they play pretty often in the film and come up against other bands on their journey too. Films like this can live or die by the music it chooses because if that band don't sound like a real band, if it's too contrived, it just won't work (See 'Where's Fluffy?' in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist snorearama. Don't worry, SP vs. TH is on another level). So in a master stroke in planning each separate band has an actual real life equivalent writing for it. Beck writes the Sex Bob-omb songs (lo-fi indie fuzz), Metric fill in for Clash at Demonhead (which from my own view of the comics fits them perfectly), and Broken Social Scene sort out the Crash and the Boys songs. What makes this extra clever is that once the songs are written, it's the cast performances which are used in the film meaning there's no jarring awkward voice syncing gonna happen.

More importantly than that Broken Social Scene and Metric both come from a Canadian music scene that was, at the time a couple of years ago, vibrant and exciting and it was during this time the comics were written in Canada. This helps add to the authenticity of the whole thing.

I totally loved the film. But I feel almost wrong in reviewing it. I'm not impartial. I am in every way their target audience: I've read the comics, I've grew up in the 8 and 16-bit era, I love pixel art, Zelda and chiptune, most my favourite bands come from Canada, and I like Michael Cera.

I think that last one is important in knowing if you're going to enjoy this flick. On the nets Cera gets a lot of flack about his samey act he's been doing for years now. I remember reading he'd be taking the role of Scott Pilgrim, and to be honest I was disappointed because I know what Cera does, and that's not how I pictured Scott in my head. But he doesn't just pull out his standard performance, he does step up and puts in a great showing. Scott acts thoughtless but in an innocent way, and there's growth (although it takes a while) where Scott learns a few things and how his decisions affect other people. It’s worth commending Cera on nailing the fight scenes too.

The film has a depth in its supporting cast that means in many cases the smaller characters are guilty of some scene stealing. Many reviews have mentioned the work of Kieran Culkin, who does indeed have some good lines. My personal favourite was Aubrey Plaza as Julie Powers, with a caustic dislike for Scott. The exes too are each pretty fleshed out and enjoyable, and one of the best scenes goes to Chris Evans and his turn as Pro Skater turned Action Star Lucas Lee. I'm not ashamed to say I've been following him for a while since I found he made the film "Not Another Teen Movie" not only bearable but also rewatchable. But in each sense the Exes have their own defined styles and indeed endlessly inventive and entertaining battles. Elsewhere Mark Webber is perfectly cast as Stephen Stills, the leader of Scott’s band, popular-at-the-moment Anna Kendrick turns up for a small part, and Ellen Wong makes such an adorable Knives it kinda pulls your loyalty away from the film’s intended couple.

So after all that, why would I recommend the film beyond “It’s full of games and music I like”? Well, for one it’s genuinely funny. There’s smart zippy dialogue as well as reoccurring visual gags (Scott’s haircut trauma for one). Secondly how often do things like 8 bit computer games act as stylish pointers for films? Never. Thirdly and most importantly it just needs to be seen! Edgar Wright has clearly put so much of his heart into making this a potential game changer in the way visual effects are seamlessly blended in, and how it takes the film to a higher level. You have genuinely never seen a movie that looks this way before, and given the Box Office results you probably never will.

The film isn't flawless by any means though. You leave the cinema unsure with whether you agree with Scott's choice, because out of anyone Ramona is the least fleshed out. In fact, after their first get together their relationship doesn't have too many opportunities to grow and breathe on screen beyond the battle scenes and I think this does the story some damage. The film may also drag a little towards the conclusion since the first batch of exes are all so good and the latter don't quite make it. The inclusion of Scott's ex Envy is much slimmer than her presence in the book, where we got more of the emotional damage but also some reconciliation which rounded out not only Envy more but also Scott‘s story. Finally it may be because the comic book was started 6/7 years ago but some of the styles, Ramona's in particular, just seem a little dated by today's standard. And Scott wears sweat bands still.

I’m getting the feeling there’s a lot of waffle up there, so here’s a summary:
See this movie. It’s original, inventive, playful, unique, heartfelt and funny and whenever those things are combined they should be commended and experienced at the cinema. Don’t miss it.

There’s still more I could write: Edgar Wright deserves an award, why did this film bomb in America? But they’re for another time perhaps.

In the meantime as a final tempter, if you find any of these videos amusing or at all interesting, go see this film.






Can't embed this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jMruFHTwrY&feature=related

Finally, I have a page of my own further waffles at http://lutherburger.blogspot.com/ come say hello.

Craig