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SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD (2010) Directed by Edgar Wright. Starring Michael Cera, Jason Schwartzman, Kieran Culkin, Mark Webber, Aubrey Plaza, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kim Pine, Johnny Simmons, Ellen Wong, Anne Kendrick and Brandon Routh.


Somewhere between the comic/manga/anime/video game school of commercial entertainment and the hipster/indie/shiftless-youth universe lies the small but fertile fields from which Scott Pilgrim sprung.

It’s the story of a young man in a band whose life, at least as we see it, appears to resemble the dreamworld of a teenage boy.

As we watch it, we know it’s a put-on, a defense mechanism for a young man trying his best to deal with early-adulthood angst. We sympathize with him because we know how painful, dull and disappointing your life can be then, whether you’ve been through it and survived or are currently so stuck. We know how a facade of the fantastic can be therapy for a sensitive soul – and one who is also a bit of a jerk.

Based on the Scott Pilgrim graphic novel series by Canadian Bryan Lee O’Malley, this comedy centers around the title character, played by Michael Cera, a 22-year-old Toronto bass player for the unfortunately-named band Sex Bob-Omb. He lives with Wallace (Kieran Culkin), a mischievous yet supportive gay friend and hangs out with his bandmates, Stephen Stills (Mark Webber), Kim Pine (Allison Pill) and hanger-on/substitute bass player Young Neil (Johnny Simmons).

He’s recently been dating a high-school student, Knives Chau (Ellen Wong) despite the disapproval of his peer group and his sister Stacey (Anna Kendrick). At a party he runs into an attractive and very cool-looking girl, Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and does his best to impress her, which consists of telling her the origin of pac-man’s name. She is not impressed.

Later he manages to convince her to go out with him and finds her to be a fascinating and complicated young woman. Soon a conflict develops between his interest in Ramona and his situation with Knives. Further complicating this is the frequent appearance of Ramona’s “seven evil exes,” each of whom challenges Scott to a duel to the death.

The duels take place wherever the exes find him, and these battles have the super-charged nature of a video game martial arts fight. The fights are all over the place and when Scott wins one, the opponent suddenly turns into a splash of coins as a points score is graphically shown on-screen.

This might be a good time to describe the general look of the movie. It’s all in Toronto’s less spectacular neighborhoods and their underground music clubs. Virtually every action that Scott takes is accompanied by some words popping up onscreen like the sound graphics in the 60s Batman series. Occasionally there is narration/color commentary provided by Bill Hader and little arrows pointing out different things worthy of your attention, such as which items in Wallace and Scott’s apartment belong to who.

This zippily-paced meta-world is, again, all there for Scott’s benefit and seems like a comedy take on similar interior fantasy/nightmare films such as James Mangold’s IDENTITY (2003) and Zack Snyder’s recent, more expensive yet far less entertaining SUCKER PUNCH. Scott is an unreliable narrator of sorts, though his faults do show, particularly with his on/off concern for the band that he’s in and his rather selfish treatment of the women in his life. Still, we like this guy because we want him to wise up and grow up and we think he can. He kind of does, in the end. Kind of.

This giddy surrealism is brought to us via British director Edgar Wright, best known for his work with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost on SHAUN OF THE DEAD and HOT FUZZ. His career is on a fast track at the moment, as he’s written a script for Spielberg’s TINTIN flick and is also set to direct a couple of high-profile movies, among the an adaptation of the ANT-MAN comic. I like his earlier Brit work and I found this movie an absolute delight, so I hope he doesn’t get mangled in compromise with bigger budgets and more cooks dipping their fingers in his soup.

I’m not a spring chicken, so whether or not Michael Cera is any kind of icon for the youth of today isn’t something I’m privileged to know. I do know that he’s an actor who can effortlessly project a likable young dork persona that I think appeals to moviegoers of all ages. His work up until now tends toward actual schoolboys, though. I think this is the first time I’ve seen the 23-year-old playing an adult, and as a transition role it makes sense, because Scott is a guy plagued, as a lot of twentysomethings are, with, ahem, arrested development. That was intentional, don’t bother pointing the obvious out.

Kieran Culkin is truly hilarious as Scott’s roommate. Kudos also to Scott’s peers and Aubrey Plaza as Julie, Scott’s ex. Also good are the league of evil exes, for the most part, especially Jason Schwartzman as G-man, the final and ultimate ex. The super-cute Mary Elizabeth Winstead is delightfully cool and offbeat as Ramona.

In the sub-subgenre of game-inspired comic meta-movies, of which I belive this is the only example, this film is CITIZEN KANE, well worth seeking out.

Be sure and lay out a supply of quarters first.Canadian quarters.