Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010)

Scott Pilgrim plays out like a live-action video game with sound effects, tokens, pee bar and all. It's a great riff off the all too typical teen comedy. It has angst, attitude and quirkiness thanks to Edgar Wright and it still finds time to be utterly hilarious. Michael Cera plays his typical awkward young man which is no surprise. However,  Anna Kendrick, Kieran Culkin, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans, Brandon Routh, Brie Larson and Jason Schwartzman among others bring a lot of wit. So much sass to go around; it's quite entertaining.

I will say it again that this film is an extremely absurd journey as we watch Scott battle Ramona's (Winstead) seven evil exes. He has a complicated former relationship of his own with Knives Chau (Ellen Wong) who never stopped loving him. Then there's his doting younger sister Stacey (Kendrick) and his roommate Wallace (Culkin), who is always ready with some tough love or advice.

The destination seems obvious. Scott has to defeat the exes to get Ramona for his own, but it is not quite that easy. It never is and this film becomes about the path that these characters take. It's not your typical formatted film, so leave your reservations outside. During its most enjoying moments it becomes an utterly entertaining live-action-cartoon, musical mash-up adventure set in Canada. Don't ask questions, just watch it for yourself. It's certainly one of the more unique films in recent memory.

4/5 Stars