REVIEW: Sexless Geek Isn't as Heroic, Romantic as Scott Pilgrim Thinks
Everyone has the right to love the relics of his or her childhood: PacMan as opposed to Grand Theft Auto, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles over Dora the Explorer, New Kids on the Block trumping Taylor Swift. But nostalgia can be as cloying as it is comforting, and there comes a time when that wardrobe of ringer T's emblazoned with cartoon characters ought to be left behind. Especially if you're a grown-up guy and you have any interest in, you know, actually sleeping with a girl.
Scott Pilgrim, the knock-kneed hero of Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, hasn't figured that out yet, and his persistent Trix-are-for-kids schtick is supposed to be charming. As he's played by Michael Cera, Scott is meant to be the underdog you root for -- you should want him to get the girl. But to get the girl -- in this case, a deadpan minx named Ramona, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead -- shouldn't he have to express some interest in her, to progress beyond moony-eyed infatuation? To talk to her, to find out what she likes and doesn't like, to avoid boring her with useless trivia that's of interest only to him, to make something other than garlic bread when he invites her over for dinner?
But Scott Pilgrim is a superhero who wears his security blankie as both a cape and a force field: His own feelings of uncertainty are all that matter, and they're the motor that drives Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, with all the ferocity of a rubber band wound around a propeller. Scott is an aimless 22-year-old living in Toronto. We'll later learn that he's "between jobs," though what he might want to do with his life is never made clear. For now, he spends his days practicing with his rock band (a suitably noisy little outfit called Sex Bob-Omb) and also happens to be dating, if only half-heartedly, a 17-year-old from a local high school, Knives Chau (Ellen Wong), who's clearly flattered by this older guy's attention and worships him and his band breathlessly.
Scott's bandmates (played by Mark Webber and Alison Pill; Johnny Simmons is their hanger-on and roadie) tease him mildly about Knives, though they realize she's a nice kid. And Knives is certainly easy to impress: She listens to Scott's stream of prattling about the genesis of Pac-Man as if it were some sort of holy text. But the woman Scott will really fall for, Winstead's Ramona, isn't so easy to please. When he first spots her -- she's a cranky beauty with a shock of fuchsia hair -- it's love at first sight. But she's not interested in his PacMan factoids. What gives? He pressures her, in a gratingly low-key way, to go on a date with him, and she relents. But as their involvement becomes more serious, Scott learns that to win his love object he must complete a series of tasks: As the result of some not-really-explained curse, he must vanquish Ramona's former paramours -- otherwise known as the Seven Evil Exes -- with nothing but his own scrawny limbs and perhaps his bass guitar.
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I was worried that Michael Cera's one-note acting would be the downfall of this potentially great film.
Michael Cera is very good at playing Michael Cera.
"But nostalgia can be as cloying as it is comforting, and there comes a time when that wardrobe of ringer T’s emblazoned with cartoon characters ought to be left behind."
This perfectly sums up my feelings toward our current era of sleek superheroism and geek chic: Grow up already.
Thanks for the great, dissenting review.
Oh, StephieZ how you confuse me! The last summer movie that you thought was too full of itself and then hung a big, stinky number 3 around was "Inception", which I quite enjoyed. Then you gave the likes of "Salt" an exalted 8, a movie I thought was devoid of nearly any entertainment value. If you're telling us that "Scott Pilgrim" is more of the former than the latter then, my dear, you have successful performed "Inception" on me and I will go and see Cera in all his faux hipster-nerd regalia. Well played.
Breaking news: old-fashioned, stodgy film critic doesn't enjoy youth-centric, video game-meets-anime hyper-stylized movie. Jaws drop across nation.
No one agreed with Stephanie's positive assessment of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" either.
Stephanie's movie reviews are like me giving directions -- the exact opposite is usually correct.
Stephanie seems to hate inventiveness. It's very strange. Salt - a by-the-numbers thriller with a star from the early 00's gets an 8, but Inception - an interesting and brainy Summer action/puzzler gets panned. And this - a love letter to geeks and video games, shot with enough inventiveness to fuel ten movies, focuses on one aspect and says that the rest of the novelty of the film is "wearying."
You're the type of critic that fuels my disappointment with the movie industry, Stephanie. Stop watching new films and stick with the cold comfort of black and white if you aren't interested in the color of new films, and let someone else review the new ones. Someone with some fresh eyes.
YEAH MAN GO WATCH SOME BLACK AND WHITE MOVIES BECAUSE YOU DON'T GET INVENTIVENESS!!! THIS MOVIE IS FULL OF INVENTIVENESS.
(also, are you under the impression that film critics are part of the movie industry? I mean, some are, but...wha?)
Breaking news: fanboy gets mad when his beloved comic book's conversion to movie is criticized by one person.
Just because a movie doesn't have heart, doesn't mean it has brains.
That's weird. It's almost as if you guys have different tastes or something...
I have to agree with Feet of Courier... I could not believe my eyes when I saw 3 next to Inception - a movie that at least incites curiosity - and 8 next to Salt, a boring, badly elaborated film whose strength lies on its leading lady stardom.
I hadn't given much thought to Scott, but now maybe I should check it out...
At least Stephanie disagrees with Armond White for once.
I've seen the movie. It's fun, I liked it, but I didn't love it. It definitely keeps the viewer at arm's length with its irony and preciousness. Is it a "3" based on its own merits? No, I don't think it is objectively bad enough to receive a score like that (the same is even more true for Inception). At the very least, Scott Pilgrim is a movie with a point of view and a voice that doesn't feel like it was noted to death by studio suits.
That said, between the laughable Inception review and this, it's clear SZ has an axe to grind with any film targeted at twentysomething fan-boys.
And she's entitled to that, and -- to her credit -- she makes no secret of her anti-geek bias. And we as readers are also entitled to call her out when she veers into Armond White trollishness.
And she scored Salt an "8." That is her Waterloo.
Breaking News: D-Bag troll has nothing better to do than defend his beloved film "critic" against people that disagree with her.
Even though StephieZ proved herself tone-deaf at best and incompetent at worst (depends on who you ask) when it came to Inception, I think the real reason she takes so much grief is her generally odious attitude.
If she's so overwhelmingly consumed by her dislike of certain filmmakers (Nolan, in this case), perhaps Movieline would better serve its readers by asking one of their less vitriolic reviewers to tackle such films. That said, she knows exactly what she's doing by playing the contrarian in order to stand out, so I shed no tears over poor StephieZ's bags of hate mail - she asked for every little piece of it and I'm certain she derives a perverse sense of pride from it.
I, for one, am an otherwise perfectly rational human being who has become absolutely allergic on a molecular level to her opinions. I don't imagine you care, Stephanie, but it's not a good sign when a reader agrees with you (as I do here) and they still really wish you would shut up.
"If she's so overwhelmingly consumed by her dislike of certain filmmakers (Nolan, in this case), perhaps Movieline would better serve its readers by asking one of their less vitriolic reviewers to tackle such films. "
If only that were actually true. There's literally NOTHING in her writing that would suggest that she is "overwhelmingly consumed" by her dislike of Nolan (it's not as though she brutally pans EVERY Nolan movie).
"That said, she knows exactly what she's doing by playing the contrarian in order to stand out, so I shed no tears over poor StephieZ's bags of hate mail - she asked for every little piece of it and I'm certain she derives a perverse sense of pride from it. "
Indeed, she's SO contrarian that she gave one of seven fairly negative reviews of Scott Pilgram.
"That said, between the laughable Inception review and this, it's clear SZ has an axe to grind with any film targeted at twentysomething fan-boys."
Oh, my! You came to that conclusion using two films aimed at that audience out of hundreds that she's reviewed!
yeah trace, she is so down on nolan! even though he has never made a good movie! yeah, trace, bags and bags of hate mail!
Breaking news: another D-bag troll also has nothing better to do than defend a fanboi over his confusion between "hyper-stylized" and "all-out self consciousness".
...huh?
Breaking news: You both suck.
That's weird. It's almost as if Trace could be StephieZ... What level of the dream am I in? Quick, somebody toss me into a bathtub full of ringer tees!
One-two-three-four-five-six-SEVEN? OMG. That's almost as many as ten.
As someone else named Trace I am completely bothered by how you seem to think you need to reply to ever comment made here. You make us look like self important nutcases. Just stop it. I'm embarrassed for you.
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