Movie of the Summer of 2010: "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World"

I will see this movie again before you see this movie if you haven't seen it already. I'm writing about this movie right after watching this movie because Ai is already asleep so you, dear reader, get excited run-on sentence me all hyper with how Scott Pilgrim filled me up it is that good. There it was. The run-on sentence. Did you catch it? Did it kill you? Do you care?

People walk out of this movie. They walked out of my viewing, a few did. That's how good it is. And I'm not even being half sarcastic. All great flicks divide, and half the people I know will hate this movie as much as the other half will go bonkers-bananas for it.  (You have been warned!) I'm not saying you had to be good at Super Mario Brothers to even slightly enjoy this movie, but I will suggest that if you can't sing the Super Mario Brothers theme music (if only the main part, even if you can't remember the wicked underwater part) it may not be for you. This is a metaphor (the Mario Brothers theme music does not actually get played in Scott Pilgrim Vs The World). It's also a limitation. It's a shame the movie not be for everyone. But then the world is full of shame and taste remains subjective. (I'm sorry but I have yet to finish a novel by Salman Rushdie.)

Scott Pilgrim, his bass guitar, his fight against the world. This flick is funny as hell. It's silly as hell. It's smart as hell. Michael Cera who is supposed to be Scott Pilgrim but is really just Michael Cera (with some awesome CG super powers) because he is always Michael Cera in every movie he appears in, but so what and what of it? Jimmy Stewart was always Jimmny Stewart and I never got tired of him or of Audrey Hepburn playing up her Audreyness, and though Cera ain't pretty and though he certainly idn't no James Stewart, he is from Canada and he is funny and he's charming and you try to do what he does at 98 pounds. 

The movie is filmed in Toronto and it's about Toronto and there is a concert at Lee's Palace, which has to be one of the great rock venues. And Casa Loma gets a role, and so many exteriors are shot at Bathurst and Bloor which has to be one of the great intersections of all time and just the fact of seeing Honest Ed's in the background, it just makes me want to write crude things expressing the extent of my pleasure... that's how excited I am. Nuff said. No. It's not. God bless Toronto cause no one else will. Everyone rags on T.O. If they're American they laugh at it as if it were Pittsburgh. If they're Canadian but not Torontonian they just hate it cause they have the mistaken impression that we think we're God's gift when really we are constantly in the New York shadow just fighting for a little cool, a little self-respect, a little transformation like you see at the new AGO or in the architectural marvel that is the OCAD building. Fighting for the kind of cache that only comes along when a director as talented as Edgar Wright (and boy do you bet I will be running out to rent Shaun of the Dead and kicking myself for not having done so already) puts your city at the centre of his visually awesome affair. 

Kieran Culkin. Tell me something: what is it about the younger brothers of once stars and how they can so surpass their elder siblings and become something really pretty great? Think Joaquin Phoenix, think Casey Affleck. Culkin's is a supporting role but he is a great actor. With little he do much. With humor he have plenty. With my vote he be nominated for Monsieur Oscar. (Never gonna happen.)

The movie has ass kicking, rock music making, nerd video game playing, wicked-ass special-effect-creating joy all over the place. I was beaming. Beaming throughout the movie like a light bulb, like a laser beam, like a kid. It was that good. I am that hyper. It is 1:15 am (perhaps my not having to wake up and teach tomorrow is having an effect on all this).

Scott Pilgrim is like a cheesy video game come to life in the best way, full of energy and fun and music and the rest. Except it's also got heart. Oh and did I mention it's funny as hell?

I could go on. I could sing the hills are alive I could dance like Michael Jackson I could get out my joystick and play an old-school video game just to hear the ping each time I get a point and relive a little of the wacky, wonderful willy wonka genius that put this movie together.

Brilliant. I'm shaking my head. Just brilliant.
Can't wait to see it again.