Welcome to the first week of Blame Lundon. The "When ever I feel like it, but very probably weekly" commentary on film, culture, politics, toys, alcohol, tipping your waitress, day jobs, chocolate, farming, games, swimming pools, sheep, ninjas, pirates, robots, monkeys, vacations, caffeine, the proper way to skin a cat, raising children, boating accidents, marshmallows and Taco Bell. Truthfully a large portion of the above paragraph was total BS.
As this is my first article and the film is pretty fresh in my mind we are going to be taking about Scott Pilgrim. 15 SPOILERS on a dead critics chest, yo ho ho and a bottle of...what am I drinking right now anyway? Cruzan Vanilla Rum mixed with Pepsi. HA I'm a pirate tonight!
So...Scott Pilgrim. Its gonna be hard for me to talk about the film purely from the perspective of the film on its own because what you have is a film directly targeted at what American Business would call a "limited" audience. My parents will not get the same thing out of the film that I got. From the general sampling of the "mass" media I took after the film came out, the Nintendo generation is ready to see this film at midnight every saturday for the next ten years unfortunately kicking Rocky Horror Picture Show out of all its old haunts. But for most folks who didn't grow up on Nintendo hard games, and most "average" folks born before 1975 view this film with the exact same confusion and general contempt they view the people who see it and/or the comics the film is based on as a sort of bible, or metaphorical mirror of their reality. So what you have here is something akin to the Twilight Saga but for a much smaller WAY more dedicated audience that "gets it". if you find yourself saying "I don't get it" do not worry, Scott Pilgrim is kind of the deep end of the pool and your admitting you don't know how to swim. Stick around in a week or two I'll put together a list of beginner, intermediate, and advanced cultural elements and icons of the "Nintendo Generation" so for those of you who are interested can explore.
So having said that what the hell was the movie about?
Simply put its the heart felt, romantic comedy, action adventure, coming of age, comic book movie that details the surreal journey of one shy, often clueless, 24 year old geek who's ultimate goal in life is to be Awesome. For those of you who have seen a movie or two in the last 33 years (25 May 1977 guess the film! ) , you are probably assuming that the "Awesome" that Scott Pilgrim wants to be includes saving the "world" mentioned in the title. And you would be entirely wrong, the world at large is largely unaffected by Scott's journey of personal growth. Self respect and respect of women are the two core messages in Scott Pilgrim. And while this is true the bells and whistles that dress that message up all nice and pretty so you can take it out to the club are the bread and butter of the film.
My review of the film: I really enjoyed the film. well worth the money I paid to see it. Keep in mind I've been look forward to this film sense I heard it was being made so that probably makes me one the youngins with the ADD.
Elements I was fascinated by or interested in outside of cultural references:
Every straight man or lesbian in Scott Pilgrim is either an self centered idiot, a chauvinistic asshole, or just plain annoying ( Unless you include the men in Sex Bob-Omb then I'm just full of shit.) Scott Pilgrim's character arc is to not be a self centered idiot, a chauvinistic asshole, or just plain annoying. In the end he makes some simple efforts to become a better human being and we get awesome flashy fight scenes, kick ass music, and nifty graphics, awesome lines of dialogue, and fantastic visuals
Straight women and gay men on the other hand are smart, strong willed, and opinionated with out being combative, Sadly this is not true for the women who are romantically connected to Scott Pilgrim. These women are either not yet fully realized as people or are self centered, assholes, and/or just plain annoying. Though Knives does reach a sort of self actualization in the end when she no longer lusts after Scott. His ex girlfriend is the embodiment of shallow and Ramona carries around her baggage almost like a trophy of the hard road she has walked, which she admits herself was a road of her own making.
Scott and Ramona make a lot of thematic and generational sense as a couple. Both characters are no where close to fully formed people, their parents are non existent, and they like so many others from their generation face the world alone with only minimal advice or interference from those who gave birth to them. They explore each others issues without the luxury of open honest communication, revealing major information about their situations and personalities long after the information would have been useful. The film plays these behaviors for laughs but all you need to do is watch reality television or talk to someone in high school or a sophomore in college to see that its a disturbingly common social behavior.
Here's the Rotten Tomato Page. And remind me later to talk about the guy who talks about his "critic hat" falling off cause he was having to much fun...SPOILER ALERT: Fuck that guy for insinuating that having fun at a film makes you incapable of approaching it intellectually or from a critical perspective. Mindsets like that ruin this shit for everyone. Why fuck over not only yourself, but the people who made the movie by attaching a sense of "failure" to enjoyment. If you wanna be like that then save ten bucks and stay home. I think I would quit watching and making films if I ever made it my main goal to fight against being emotionally involved in something I was watching.
There it is. The first Article on Blame Lundon. Comments make the world go round. Have film you would like me to review? Comment Bellow. I have netflix and am willing to hunt down rarer elements of cinematic history. So old or new make your suggestions. Unless something more interesting presents itself come back Wednesday for an article on Godzilla, Final Fantasy 7 Advent Children, my "hero's left arm" theory and the obsession in Japanese film and anime to present an alternative explanation for the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Jesse "Fish" Simpson
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