Scott Pilgrim

The other night, I saw "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World" (Wright, 2010) for the first time. I know I'm behind the curve in saying this, but it was awesome. In addition to it being awesome, I would like to posit it as a kind of zeitgeist movie of the hipster culture; it encapsulates the spirit of the zeit (time), even as it suggests new direction for the geist (spirit) of that time.



I. Comic Book Disclaimer

"Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World" is based on a comic book. I have not read the comic book (though I plan to) so all uses of "Scott Pilgrim" refer to the film.

II. Sincerity

One of the things I like most about this movie is its sincerity. Though its mise-en-scene and cultural touchstones (post/punk, indie rock, '80s videogames) are unabashedly hipster, its plot can be read as a repudiation of the core hipster values of cynicism and apathy. A spoiler-laden example follows:

[SPOILER ALERT] When Ramona (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is leaving at the movie's end, Scott (Michael Cera) says "Ok, well, bye and stuff." Then he goes after her. There is real potential (in terms of the narrative, and in terms of extant footage available to the editors, according to friends who watched the deleted scenes) that Scott will let her go. But he doesn't! Thus, Scott's movie-long sincere desire for Ramona is validated. [END SPOILER]

Sorry, readers who don't want to be spoiled, but that's the only example I've got. When I saw the end, I was shocked -- for the movie to end this way works, narratively, but seems so out of fashion for our times, that, in addition to my love of sincerity, I was impressed by its creative vision.


III. Form

From the get-go, it is clear that this movie is not screwing around, formally speaking. And by that I mean, it's screwing with us all the time, and doing it damn well. Titles flash onscreen, comic-book style words accompany sound effects, cuts are non-continuous, the screen splits regularly; I could go on and on about the cold open and credits sequence alone.

This movie, perhaps more so than any movie I've seen or heard about, exemplifies many of things that are popular in filmmaking today, and often get described as postmodern filmmaking. What makes "Scott Pilgrim" stand out is how it unifies form and content. Tarantino is a good name to check (and he apparently spent time on set), but this is not a Tarantino movie. "Scott Pilgrim" explicitly refers and alludes to video games, but not in the sense that it is a "video game movie." It uses these elements, but refuses to play any of their particularly limiting genre games.

Without providing the kind of close readings that I would love to do on particular formal elements, it will suffice to say that "Scott Pilgrim" is episodic, ironic, playful, referential, and diegetically shifty (in the best way possible). It is, formally, the quintessential postmodern movie.

IV. (Dis)unity

I know I've extolled "Scott Pilgrim" as a movie whose form and content are unified. I stand by that analysis; the story, born in comics, retains its comic book sensibility in a beautifully film-specific way.

The disunity is a cause for hope: while the formal elements are textbook postmodern filmmaking, the story validates sincerity -- one of the things that postmodern/hipster culture has, to my dismay, left in the dust.

"Scott Pilgrim" gives me hope that my favorite things about postmodernity and its attendant irony (Gideon's wardrobe; the vegan jokes; the indie music scene) can coexist with that same heartwarming sincerity that drives the entire movie and is [SPOILER ALERT] validated by the film's conclusion.