Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Director: Edgar Wright
Writers: Edgar Wright, Michael Bacall, Bryan Lee O'Malley (author)
Starring: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Release Date: August 13, 2010
Length: 1 hour 52 minutes

From the director of Shaun Of The Dead and based off the graphic novels by Bryan Lee O’Malley, comes one of the most original, hilarious, knock out comedies of the decade, and the best part is…it takes place in my hometown. That’s right, Scott Pilgrim’s a Torontonian. Set in the amazing city of Toronto, 22-year-old slacker, Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) lives with his gay roommate, Wallace (Kier Culkin) and plays in a band, “Sex-Bob-Bomb” with his fellow slacker friends, Stephen (Mark Webber), Kim (Alison Pill), and Young Neil (Johnny Simmons). While at a boring party, Scott spots the girl of his dreams (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), he has seen a few times already. After finding out her name is Ramona Flowers and that she works for Amazon.ca, she shows up at his door to deliver a package he ordered and he gives her an ultimatum to go on a date with him. She reluctantly agrees and the two have a pretty successful date. The next time they see each other is at Sex-Bob-Bombs first battle of the bands, and during their performance, a man named Matthew Patel comes from the ceiling and demands a fight with Scott. Soon after, Scott discovers Matthew is the first of Ramona’s evil exes he has to defeat in order to date Ramona. At first, I was a little apprehensive to see this movie because as much as I love Michael Cera, I’m beginning to get sick of the boy playing himself over and over. I cannot tell you how quick that annoyance left me when I sat down to watch this hysterical movie. The writing couldn’t have made me laugh any harder than I did. It’s one of those movies you might miss the joke because you’re laughing so hard from the last one. Sometimes, it wasn’t just the writing, but the fact that the film would say bam or ka-pow or that more and more coins would rain down from the ceiling, each time Scott defeated an ex. The way director Edgar Wright used special effects gave the film a balanced video game and superhero feel. The writing of the characters was also great because there was no small character that was just there in a scene. Each person, even if they only had two lines made you laugh in a different way. Each small and big character had a distinct hilarious personality that wasn’t clichéd or stereotyped. To bring these unique characters to life was an unbelievable cast, that couldn’t have been better chosen. Scott’s band was filled with humorous actors. Mark Webber as Stephen, the paranoid, band-obsessed lead singer, Alison Pill (Milk) as Kim, the harsh, pessimistic drummer, and Johnny Simmons (Jennifer’s Body) as young Neil, the stoned, video game lover who fills in as a bassist all gave the audience something to laugh at. The exes were all quite funny especially Brandon Routh (Superman) as the buff vegan with powers and Jason Schwartzman as the confident rich music producer. Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation) gave a hilarious performance as the downer, Julie Powers, someone in Scott’s social group.  Brie Larson (United States of Tara) was great as Scott’s sexy ex-girlfriend, Envy and Anna Kendrick once again generated laughs, this time as Scott’s annoying sister, Stacey. The most comical performance though was from Kier Culkin as Scott’s gay roommate, Wallace. Perhaps it was the relationship between these two characters or that they slept in the same bed and Scott was still straight that made me laugh so much. Or maybe it was that every time Scott woke up, there were two other guys in their bed, whom Wallace had just picked up. On a personal level, I felt this film captured Toronto perfectly, with landmarks like Casa Loma to the characters sipping their second Cup coffee, to the characters riding the nasty TTC. This film’s one default was that by the time we reached the last fight, we had already seen six long ones and were beginning to get bored of the same thing. However, this film was filled with laughs from beginning to end. I can assure you this is one of the best movies of the year because you’ve never seen anything like it before.