Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010)
Back in high school, I had actually not seen Shaun of the Dead. It wouldn’t be until much later, around 2020, that I finally saw it, and by then, I had already fallen in love with director Edgar Wright. That love was borne of a little movie called Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.
Scott Pilgrim is an interesting beast. While it certainly would have been better served as a series, given the breadth of the content, Edgar Wright’s 2010 movie adaptation starring Michael Cera still did the books justice, if only in style and writing. After all, original author Bryan Lee O’Malley himself was present for most of the creation of it. He even makes a cameo at the bar of the Rocket, and hand-drew the dumb little Ramona sketch that Scott uses to track her down.
Based in the magical land of Toronto, Canada, Scott Pilgrim tells the tale of the titular 20-something loser, a guy with no goals in life, no job, and a frankly staggering lack of self-awareness. He falls for a girl named Ramona Flowers with seven evil exes, all of whom he’ll have to defeat in mortal combat (or perhaps Kombat, in this case) so that they can be together. What she doesn’t make clear is all of the other problems that come along with them, and Scott isn’t exactly free of his own past demons either.
One might wonder how fun it could possibly be, watching two frankly unlikable characters fall in love, and the answer is that “it isn’t”. Them falling in love isn’t what this movie, or for that matter this series as a whole, does well. It’s actually the opposite: these two are kind of the worst at times, and it’s more fun watching the conflicts that arise from those hard edges creating friction. They’re surrounded by a colorful cast of characters, too, many of which are far better people to deal with, and all of whom have a habit of calling out our two “heroes”.
Scott is an idiot, a prior adulterer who stubbornly refuses to grow from the things he’s been through and done. However, he’s also incredibly funny, and while you may not root for him based on his actions, you’ll quickly find yourself rooting for him to become a better person. It’s not that he’s ACTUALLY a terrible person - it’s that he hasn’t condensed all of his life experiences into the lessons that they need to become. He hasn’t grown, but not for lack of opportunities.
Ramona is, in some ways, the opposite - when there’s a dramatic shift in her life, she runs from the lessons they try to teach her and instead reinvents herself. This is evidenced by her ever-changing hair color, and she goes through three very distinct phases throughout the film. Each one comes with a change in color, and in each case, it’s her directly inflicting a lateral change where there could instead be growth. She even enters the plot after fleeing America to escape an ex. While the ex in question is actually the worst person in the film, she would rather uproot and change countries than tackle it head on.
This dynamic is the real conflict of this movie. The seven evil exes are simply a device, a metaphor for coming to terms with a significant other’s past. It’s not on accident that two of Scott’s exes are present within the film as well, one of whom is pretty strongly in the “evil” camp. Scott’s stagnancy vs. Ramona’s tumultuousness makes this story about falling in love more about the story of what that actually means on a meta level. It’s almost a satire of the standard “boy meets girl” narrative.
Accompanying this narrative is some of the best visuals ever designed. Edgar Wright’s frenetic, chaotic style fits this universe like a glove. His dramatic cuts, vibrant colors, and snappy dialogue all turn what could be a normal romance flick into a video game-laden, neon-painted spectacle. Every action is accompanied with audio flourishes, every fight is an over-the-top anime fight sequence, and even the conversations are made interesting through camera choices. Edgar Wright actually told the cast not to blink during takes so that it would feel more like an anime, and he moved the camera for every shot so that it would be more like comic panels.
This, combined with some of the wittiest dialogue that’s ever been recorded, makes Scott Pilgrim an absolute joy to watch. It can easily consume you for its 2-hour runtime, bringing you into this world where people explode into coins when they’re defeated and Pee Bars exists. Sprinkle in a score by Radiohead’s Nigel Godrich made up of midi goodness and genuinely heartfelt guitar, and you have a masterpiece, one that, while I’m sure you’ve heard of it, is criminally underrated in the grand scheme of things.
If you haven’t watched it, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is a beautiful example of what it looks like when a director and a writer come together to create something that they both love.
Just make sure to bring an extra life. Just in case.
