"Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" (2010)
Here's the one fatal flaw this film has: it makes me feel like someone out there is drawing a bead on me. As you might expect from the trailers, it is a veritable avalanche of pop culture references. But the great majority thrown out like candy from a parade are so obscure and arcane that you would have had to be hunched over your Super Nintendo throughout your teenage years - as I definitely was - to really take in the bulk of why this film was so goddamned hilarious.
Actually, here's another flaw: it shows that Michael Sera can be really quite tolerable when he has a decent script to read from. He's not much for, y'know, expressing emotions other than quite bewilderment, being an alumni of the Elijah Wood School of Drama, but unlike "Happiness" or "Juno" he almost reaches "concerned" and "awed."
Fuck it, here's some more: the gal who voice-acts Triana Orpheus from "The Venture Brothers" plays the female lead, who is pretty exactly Triana Orpheus herself. The film resembles "Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist" (which I tortured myself with last year) from a parallel universe where it wasn't the Bataan Death March of film.
I'll rephrase the first paragraph: the film feels like it was made by someone who has been digging through my trash. I feel...targeted. Dialed-in. It's an unsettlingly eerie feeling. Especially for someone who, in "Super Mario Bros. 2," has thrown his share of Bob-ombs in his day.
It was literally one "Darkwing Duck" reference away from making me run screaming from the threater. Or, rather, one more reference than there was, which was a song called "Launchpad McQuack." Michael Sera could have turned to the camera and read out my Social Security Number and I don't believe I could have been more astonished.
But that all being said, it was filled with halfway decent actors (or at least amusing performances,) good, appropriate special effects, not altogether terrible music and stylistic touches that I loved in "Crank" and "Zombieland" (Chyrons, practically) which, at least for me, haven't yet grown old and which the director clearly busted his ass to keep fresh.
"Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" was an example of truly honest advertising: the whole film is like a much longer version of the trailer.
In fact, the only bad thing I can honestly say about it is that it was at times much too Indie for its own good.
A+
Actually, here's another flaw: it shows that Michael Sera can be really quite tolerable when he has a decent script to read from. He's not much for, y'know, expressing emotions other than quite bewilderment, being an alumni of the Elijah Wood School of Drama, but unlike "Happiness" or "Juno" he almost reaches "concerned" and "awed."
Fuck it, here's some more: the gal who voice-acts Triana Orpheus from "The Venture Brothers" plays the female lead, who is pretty exactly Triana Orpheus herself. The film resembles "Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist" (which I tortured myself with last year) from a parallel universe where it wasn't the Bataan Death March of film.
I'll rephrase the first paragraph: the film feels like it was made by someone who has been digging through my trash. I feel...targeted. Dialed-in. It's an unsettlingly eerie feeling. Especially for someone who, in "Super Mario Bros. 2," has thrown his share of Bob-ombs in his day.
It was literally one "Darkwing Duck" reference away from making me run screaming from the threater. Or, rather, one more reference than there was, which was a song called "Launchpad McQuack." Michael Sera could have turned to the camera and read out my Social Security Number and I don't believe I could have been more astonished.
But that all being said, it was filled with halfway decent actors (or at least amusing performances,) good, appropriate special effects, not altogether terrible music and stylistic touches that I loved in "Crank" and "Zombieland" (Chyrons, practically) which, at least for me, haven't yet grown old and which the director clearly busted his ass to keep fresh.
"Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" was an example of truly honest advertising: the whole film is like a much longer version of the trailer.
In fact, the only bad thing I can honestly say about it is that it was at times much too Indie for its own good.
A+