REVIEW: ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. The World’

“He seems nice.”

“Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” (let’s just call it “Pilgrim”) could possibly be the best videogame adaptation yet found in cinema, which is really impressive considering that it is actually an adaptation of a graphic novel series.  The action moves quickly; people dart about like pinballs (another misguided comparison, sorry); when opponents are defeated in Mortal Kombat-inspired battles, they explode into a pile of coins (one assumes for further gaming, or perhaps to pay for the wormhole-driven transit system the lead character’s girlfriend uses to deliver Amazon packages); and scores light up the air.  Truly, the film is a sampling of all the best and brightest elements of geek culture: non-threatening eccentricity, clever t-shirts, youthful abandon balanced by emotional common-sense, a love for anime and a distinctive ear for music.  “Pilgrim” takes everything we’ve been told we will outgrow, cements its world firmly in those elements, and tells a story as old as the hills: boy meets girl, boy woos girl…girl’s Seven Evil Exes attack boy.  It’s no spoiler that love prevails:  it would be a gut-punch if a movie as joyous and colorful as “Pilgrim” ended any other way.

Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) is a 22-year-old lay-about who plays bass guitar in a band when he isn’t “dating” a 17-year-old high school girl named Knives Chau (“We almost held hands once.”).  His friends are concerned about this development in his love-life, but Scott is coming off a bad break-up, still stinging after being discarded by Envy (Brie Larson), who went off to become the lead singer for a band called The Clash At Demonhead, whose posters seem to be in every corner of the film.  Scott’s band, Sex Bob Omb, is made up of Stephen Stills (Mark Webber), better known as The Talent; Kim Pine (Allison Pill), their aggressive drummer and a former fling of Scott’s; and Young Neil (Johnny Simmons), who mostly seems to provide moral support.  Upon meeting Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a delivery girl who skates through his dreams, Scott’s attentions are torn between her, the ever-clinging Knives, the band’s attempts to win a battle royale with a grand prize of a recording contract, and the repeated intrusions of the aforementioned Seven Evil Exes.  It seems that anyone who dates Ramona must defeat them to win her over.

Director Edgar Wright (“Shaun of the Dead”, “Hot Fuzz”, “Don’t”) approaches the film with a winning combination of gentle drama, explosive fight sequences and a persistent strain of good-natured humor.  Wright’s badge of honor is that the film never lets up, yet never feels overwhelming, allowing a large cast of small roles to get adequate screen time, while moving the story at a brisk pace.  It also benefits from being one of the few movies in recent memory that seems aimed at a very distinct, youthful  demographic without resulting in stupidity or easy, lowest-common-denominator jokes.  It is smart, funny, exciting and memorable.  I’m not sure what more you could ask for from any film, but one as specially designed and acutely targeted as “Pilgrim” seems made-to-order.

Winstead is dreamily effective as the tough girl with alternating hair color; she accepts Scott’s request to date about as casually as you or I would call for time and temperature.  The supporting cast is dotted with familiar faces: Brandon Routh (“Superman Returns”) appears as a bright-eyed Vegan; Chris Evans (the future Captain America) is dead-on as a smug actor accompanied by a threatening team of stuntmen; Kieran Culkin plays Scott’s sarcastic homosexual roommate; and Jason Schwartzman is the record executive who makes the band a too-tempting offer.  Schwartzman and Routh (both around 30 years old) are the old men of the cast, with the exception of a pair of cameos I won’t spoil here.  Anyone who questions the youthfulness of the film just isn’t paying attention.

But the key role is Michael Cera’s, and he is an actor I find hard to enjoy.  It stems from the simple fact that in every role, Michael Cera plays Michael Cera.  The soft-spoken, uncertain, dart-eyed, esteem-dragging pseudo-kid got old after about the third go-round.  But Cera’s made a career out of this persona, sometimes to good effect (“Juno”), sometimes woefully not (“Year One”).  As Scott Pilgrim, Cera perhaps has found the perfect role for his self-imposed limitations.  Scott is all about uncertainty, but the film has him in so many quick-response moments and straight-up action scenes that Cera’s tactics either fit perfectly or are easily masked by the logistics of the plot.  After “Pilgrim”, however, it would be nice to see some growth in his performances.

Wright has created a resoundingly good film filled with great comic reactions, transitions, fantasy elements planted firmly in normal surroundings, and dialogue that could be called rapid-fire if it all wasn’t so deadpan casual.  The filmmaker’s attention to detail throughout makes for some amusing blink-and-you-miss-them visual gags, in some cases quite educational.  Panning through a record store, for example, there is a placard for a subgenre of music called “sadcore”…which at first I thought was a great throwaway joke (thank you, Wikipedia!).  Thanks to Wright and “Pilgrim”, I now know better, and feel richer for it.