The Pilgrim's Tale

Scott Pilgrim vs The World
(Edgar Wright, 2010)

5 Stars

One of the big problems with being in Japan (aside from cheese depravation and a severe overdose of rice) is my love/hate relationship with Japanese cinemas. On the one hand, they are fantastic; big, kid of old fashioned, with amazingly comfortable seats and the all-too-wonderful “pamphlet”, kind of like a theatre programme to go with your movie, whilst on the other, they are ridiculously expensive (think Leicester Square prices), and almost never seem to have the movie you want.

And anything not in the Harry Potter Hugeness Range is utterly out of the question.

And so it was that I had waited so very long for Edgar Wright’s comic book/computer game/anime/live-action mash-up, Scott Pilgrim vs The World, only to find that it was not to be released in Japan. My heart sank, and I was forced to trudge the interweb for entirely 100% legal copies online. But try as I might, I just could not get to see this movie.

Fast forward to boxing day 2010, the DVD release date, and find me speeding towards the nearest media outlet, willing to pay whatever price was to be demanded (£12.98 from HMV if I remember rightly). And was it worth it?

Darn tootin’.

Wright’s adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s afore-to rather unheard of graphic novel is bright, bubbly, bodacious, and out-right hilarious, truly creating the all-too-many-mashed-up-things genre I just mentioned. In style and undertaking, unless you’ve watched the bizarre Japanese movie Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl, you ain’t seen nothing like it.

Michael Cera’s performance as dead-pan loser Pilgrim is a delight to watch (yes, I may well be becoming a Cera fan at last), whilst love interest Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Wanstead) is a hair-dying delicacy from beginning to end. Kieran Culkin (who you will spend the entire film thinking “who does he look like?”, only to kick yourself when the credits roll) is wonderfully wicked as Scott’s gossipy but loving gay room mate, whilst Alison Pill and Mark Webber (reunited again after Lars Von Trier’s little wonder Dear Wendy) rock some socks as Scott’s equally monosylabatic band-mates.

The true show-stealer, however, is Ellen Wong as love-sick Knives Chau, managing to be the perfect balance of adorable, annoying and kick-ass. One to watch in the future.

The story, admittedly, is pretty bizarre; to win the heart of the girl of his dreams, Scott must battle her seven evil exes, whilst at the same time trying to juggle band practice and be rid of an obsessed teenage fan; but, somehow, it works. Under Wright’s direction, and with a stellar cast of mostly unknowns, Scott Pilgrim really was last year’s most inexplicable flop.

But do yourself a favour; forget that you probably haven’t heard of it, don’t worry how daft the story sounds, just get out there and watch it, but it, and spread the world, ‘cause gosh darnit, do I want to see Scott take on the Universe!