Re: OSC on his stroke, and why Scott Pilgrim is so brilliant

I told my wife just last night that this was on my list of must see soon movies,
based on some of the things said here.
 
We ended up watching Nanny McPhee returns instead.
 
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
Of Johne Cook
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2011 2:10 PM
Subject: [DADL-OT] OSC on his stroke, and why Scott Pilgrim is so brilliant
 
http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/everything/2011-01-06.shtml
Over the holidays, we all settled down to watch Scott Pilgrim vs. the World on
DVD. The promos for this movie last summer made the movie seem like it might be
mildly entertaining but missable. It looked like dumb comedy. 
In fact, it's sharp satire, a weird-and-wonderful treatment of a semi-slacker's
life as if he were in a comic book or a videogame. It's not that he has
superpowers, but some of his new girlfriend's ex-boyfriends do, and, just as in
a videogame, when he fights them he suddenly has completely inexplicable
martial-arts skills. 
Michael Cera, who plays the title role, is completely wonderful -- a lively
personality even when he's dead-panning and a likeability that persists even
when he acts like a jerk. Think of him as the geek version of Romeo and you'll
be right on. 
The movie has a strong moral center -- Pilgrim is held to account for his jerky
choices (e.g., taking on a new girlfriend before breaking up with the old one).
But the movie also has a sharp eye for satire, though I don't know how much of
this comes from the original graphic novels (by Bryan Lee O'Malley). 
I loved the Vegan ex-boyfriend whose devastating superpowers come from the
purity of his veganness, so he can only be defeated by tricking him into eating
dairy. 
By the end of the movie you're glad that real life isn't like this -- and also
kind of wishing that it were. 
Look, I can see why the studio did such a lousy job of promoting this movie that
it flopped at the box office -- there's no way to communicate how clever and
funny and surprising and smart is it. You just have to see it. 
If your sense of humor begins and ends with Will Ferrell or Jack Black, this
movie would be wasted on you. Likewise, if you only like movies that make you
feel smarter than your friends, forget it -- Scott Pilgrim is accessible to just
about anybody under the age of 70 who still has a sense of contemporary culture.

This movie is not in contention for any Oscars this year. It doesn't even try to
be a "great film." But it's a good movie the plows new and fertile ground, and I
hope that people like me who missed it in the theaters will now make it a hit on
DVD, so that the people who made this movie can get the funding to make more. 


Johne Cook
| http://raygunrevival.com | http://authorculture.blogspot.com |

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