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Scott (Michael Cera) puts a slammer on the jaw of villainous Matthew (Satya Bhabha) in “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.” |
Throw away your Ritalin and prepare to be awed!
“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” is no ordinary movie.
It’s a delightfully unhinged multimedia sensory assault, an in-your-eyes-and-ears romantic fantasy that combines comic books, video games, TV sitcoms, Hong Kong martial arts movies and old-fashioned soap operas.
“Scott Pilgrim” has been blindingly edited with strobe light speed, and every frame explodes with wit, imagination and pop culture verve.
It throws out so much razzle and dazzle that it eventually begins to frazzle. But just getting to this film’s point of diminishing returns is well worth the trip.
The story follows the hallucinogenic, wacked-out adventures of a 22-year-old Toronto lad named Scott (the laconically droll Michael Cera) who lives with his gay roommate Wallace Wells (Kieran Culkin) and has fallen in love with a high school student named Knives Chau (Ellen Wong), even though they’ve never even held hands.
Scott often practices playing guitar for his indie-rock band in a small apartment.
Right away, you know you’re in a comic book-inspired alternate universe when cartoon graphics visually emphasize sound effects (think “Biff!” from the 1960s “Batman” TV show) and major items of importance on the screen receive identification arrows, as in the old “Dick Tracy” comic strip.
The plot kicks in when Scott meets his blue-haired soul mate, the enigmatic Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a sultry rebel with a checkered past. (Read more…)