Scott Pilgrim vs. The December Comfort Rewatch

December 4, 2023 6:28 AM

"All the absurdity and chaos works, because, let’s face it, one’s early 20s are mostly absurdity and chaos anyway." MeFi's own JScalzi on his enduring affection for the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World movie.

If you haven't watched Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, the anime-style cartoon currently on Netflix, it's a lovely revamp on the story, focusing on Ramona's own personal growth. It's being discussed over in FanFare.

posted by Kitteh (36 comments total)

Really enjoying the new one so far.

I read/watch/watch again the Scott Pilgrim chronicles through the lens that the real protagonist in this story is Kim Pine.
posted by mcstayinskool at 6:55 AM on December 4, 2023 [3 favorites]

I love the film. I played it for my Sardonic Teen Daughter, and she was like wow dad this is one of your rare choices that doesn't suck. Looking forward to watching the cartoon, possibly even with Teen should she not find anything else I've done wrong today.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 8:12 AM on December 4, 2023 [7 favorites]

SPvTW I saw when it first came out and enjoyed quite a bit, even more than the graphic novel. With the passage of time, it's really endeared itself to me to where it's a go-to recommendation. I rewatched it (again) a few months ago, and it's lost none of its charm and fun. Seconding mcstayinskool's recommendation for the new show.
posted by the sobsister at 8:12 AM on December 4, 2023 [3 favorites]

I LOVED the new series, and it's basically what I wanted the movie to be. That said, it couldn't have existed WITHOUT the movie, so it gives me more appreciation for that, as well.
posted by destructive cactus at 8:12 AM on December 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

I love the movie and in particular I love Kieran Culkin in it.

I was going to skip the new series as a retread but it sounds like there's enough new stuff to watch it through.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 8:18 AM on December 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

As a big fan of the comic and the movie, I was so eager for the new series. I got five episodes in (Lights, Camera, Sparks?), and it looks like I'm going to DNF it. I'm really not happy about this.

I read lots of press about how the new series has all this deep character work on all the different characters. I'm not really getting that. To me, it feels like a pretty surface-level romp through "what if", for all those characters, without developing them. "Ramona Rents a Video", which reviewers seem to love, particularly disappointed me in that way.

Can someone who's seen the whole new series opine on whether the overarching plot stuff pays off, in the end? Or if there's character development beyond the kind of stuff that goes on in eps 1-5?
posted by gurple at 8:31 AM on December 4, 2023

Scott chose the wrong girl.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 8:53 AM on December 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

I still can't get over "Vegan powers." At first I thought, "he's supposed to be from the planet Vega?" Then, no, he's just a vegan and I guess in the Pilgrim universe vegans are just that way. Makes me wonder if pescatarians have Aquaman powers.
posted by SPrintF at 9:17 AM on December 4, 2023 [2 favorites]

Scott chose the wrong girl.

Depends on your perspective. Knives has a lot of life in front of her and doesn't need to be saddled with Scott.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:22 AM on December 4, 2023 [25 favorites]

"Gelato's not Vegan?"

I love this movie.
posted by Windopaene at 10:01 AM on December 4, 2023 [2 favorites]

I was convinced that SPvTW was going to be THE big hit new movie when it came out. It felt like it contained all the elements that would appeal to the kiddos, and I as an old also found it fun, so it HAD to be just MAMMOTH!

I'm sure there is at least one post mortem that's been written about how or why it didn't connect with an audience, but wow, I was SO certain.
posted by hippybear at 10:03 AM on December 4, 2023 [2 favorites]

Part of the charm for the movie for me was seeing it with my husband, who lived in Toronto through the 90s as a student at TMU (formerly known as Ryerson). He fondly remembered when Queen West was funky and weird, not the shiny sanitized version it is today. I think the movie captures that flavour of a specific TO timeframe that is harder to have today--Wallace's garage apartment is probably $2000/a month now--and for that alone, it is worth it.
(Like, if someone made a movie about Atlanta, GA from 1999-2009 in L5P/Va-Hi/East Atl/Cabbagetown, I would be so nostalgic and give it a pass despite potential errors.)
posted by Kitteh at 10:27 AM on December 4, 2023 [4 favorites]

Scott chose the wrong girl.

Depends on your perspective. Knives has a lot of life in front of her and doesn't need to be saddled with Scott.

no, the right girl would have been Kim Pine.
Gonna keep beating this drum (see what I did there?)
posted by mcstayinskool at 11:30 AM on December 4, 2023 [9 favorites]

the list of women with a lot of life in front of them who don't need to be saddled with scott pilgrim is very long, and the name "kim pine" can be found right at the top of it.
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 11:45 AM on December 4, 2023 [24 favorites]

The movie doesn't understand the comic, doesn't understand that seeing everything as a video game is a manifestation of and metaphor for Scott's immaturity, doesn't understand what nega-Scott is or how Scott needs to deal with it. It's very pretty and fun when it's adapting the stuff that was already out, even as it compresses more and more out of the story as it works its way through the books because the books develop people and relationships more and more and the film isn't super interested in that. But Wright probably should've waited until the story was actually finished and the themes were made their most explicit before making this movie.
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:53 AM on December 4, 2023 [2 favorites]

I have seen the movie at least a dozen and possibly dozens of times, it's so good.

there's one tiny change from the comics early that absolutely makes it better, which is when the first fight happens and everyone is completely baffled by scott suddenly being a fighter (in the comics some character goes 'don't they know scott is the best fighter in the greater toronto area??" or something).

also it wisely skips a lot of the later stuff with mind control and pocket universes apart from gestures towards it.

just a brilliant piece of film making. here's a full cast readthrough, which is nearly as entertaining.
posted by Sebmojo at 11:55 AM on December 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

SPvTW, of course, features prominently in the "Every Frame a Painting" episode about Edgar Wright's visual comedy style.

I skipped this in theaters - I'd never read the comic and had no connection to the characters or story. It wasn't until much later that I caught it on home video and had my eyes opened to what a great piece of storytelling it is.

Also, fuck Gideon.
posted by hanov3r at 12:23 PM on December 4, 2023 [2 favorites]

"Didn't you get my email explaining the situation?"

Now I'm going to have to watch it again...
posted by Windopaene at 12:47 PM on December 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

The real problem with the movie (haven't read the comics) is that Scott is totally unappealing as a boyfriend. Why would anyone (Kim, Knives, Ramona, OR Envy) be interested in him? He's kind of a giant, smug, self-centered dickhole.

BUT! It is a fun watch.
posted by Saxon Kane at 12:47 PM on December 4, 2023 [4 favorites]

He's kind of a giant, smug, self-centered dickhole.

I think that's the point of the thing.
posted by Ashwagandha at 1:02 PM on December 4, 2023 [2 favorites]

I've always thought of it as a movie I should like, but I find it boring and the bands and songs are all terrible. I also don't think Scott the character could pull off that many girlfriends whose exes want to fight him. It's like the movie is missing a part setting it all up.
posted by The_Vegetables at 1:24 PM on December 4, 2023

Absolutely!

That was why Scalzi's blog post resonated with me when I came across it on his BlueSky feed. 22-year-olds are amazingly self-centred and unaware, regardless of gender. I remember being friends with guys like Scott! (Unfortunately, dating in my 20s was centred around a boyfriend who was 16 years older than me that I met at a bar when I was 22. Talk about being unaware and making dumb decisions.)

Scott and his friends are not so different from my peer group at that age. Baristas, bands, bad choices, and just a complete lack of self-awareness that is simply part of that time in your life.
posted by Kitteh at 1:25 PM on December 4, 2023 [5 favorites]

I'm from Toronto and a couple of years older than Scott Pilgrim so reading the comic and watching the show always felt very familiar to me. Whenever I was in Toronto I was living at home but I had friends in basement apartments that were eerily similar to the ones in Scott Pilgrim. I'm sure that people living in bigger cities get that kind of thing all the time but Toronto's usually used as a stand-in for places like New York or Chicago when it shows up on screen so seeing it as itself is always a bit exciting and resonates just a bit more. I really should get around to watching the live action movie.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:26 PM on December 4, 2023 [3 favorites]

I had a very similar viewer experience with both this movie and with Napoleon Dynamite - I came in totally blind, at just the right age/demographic to be able to strongly empathise with the characters while maintaining a little reflective distance (being a teensy bit older than them) and watching them both was a delightful process of “sorry, what is this??!” 2 of the best cinema going experiences of my life.
My teenage kids are now obsessed with the movie/comics/Netflix show, which is fun to share with them. We all agree, Scott is a goddamn mess, but hanging out with Wallace and Knives would be pretty great.
posted by threecheesetrees at 3:06 PM on December 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

I was going to skip the new series as a retread but it sounds like there's enough new stuff to watch it through.

This is a hilarious sentence to anyone who HAS seen the new show (it's a complete reboot, but in a meta-referential way that continually gestures toward the original).
posted by subdee at 6:23 PM on December 4, 2023

Why would anyone (Kim, Knives, Ramona, OR Envy) be interested in him?

In the comics, Scott is like a hyperactive puppy: he has one brain cell, and he (metaphorically) pees on the carpet, but he's just so energetic and and enthusiastic that people can't help but find him endearing. I saw a video recently that argues that Scott Pilgrim is Ramona Flower's manic pixie dream boy, rather than the other way round.

The weakness of the film is that Michael Cera just doesn't have that energy. I completely understand why they cast him: he was the face of quirky indie comedy at the time. But his energy is too low.
posted by davidwitteveen at 7:13 PM on December 4, 2023 [11 favorites]

Scott's defining trait is that he's completely oblivious and Michael Cera's whole deal at the time was playing a guy who was painfully, agonizingly self-aware.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:55 PM on December 4, 2023 [7 favorites]

I also don't think Scott the character could pull off that many girlfriends whose exes want to fight him.

I'm missing something here, isn't Scott fighting Ramona's exes ?
posted by Pendragon at 11:27 PM on December 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

Absolutely love this movie, what a gem of strange and surprising beauty. Like the article's author, it turned my attention to Edgar Wright as a director due to his unusual quirks and gifts in framing and visual puns.
My only critical moment: I wish Ramona had been given more oomph in the right with her ex-lover, I wanted to see that battle hammer do some serious business and it got eliminated a bit too quickly.
posted by diode at 6:40 AM on December 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

Scott Pilgrim is absolutely my favorite movie, and I can never decide if that's in spite of Scott being a horrible person or because of it. But the largest part is definitely that it gave Edgar Wright the excuse to be at his Edgar Wrightiest.

I find it boring and the bands and songs are all terrible. I also don't think Scott the character could pull off that many girlfriends whose exes want to fight him.

The bands and songs are supposed to be terrible, just like Scott as a person is supposed to be a dick. Michael Cera was already a bassist and while the other actors were learning their instruments, he was learning how to be worse on bass. As a former member of my local teenage music scene, maybe that's another thing about the movie that speaks to me. I knew a lot of Scott Pilgrims growing up (and I was a bit of one too, if I'm being honest with myself).

And, yeah, there's only one girlfriend whose exes he's fighting.
posted by Plutor at 9:16 AM on December 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

I have to object, "Garbage Truck" is an absolute banger.
posted by joannemerriam at 11:50 AM on December 5, 2023 [3 favorites]

One of the best cinema-going experiences of my life was Scott Pilgrim on opening night in Toronto. Edgar Wright had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand. This was a time when Toronto was doing a fair bit of growing up itself, and when Toronto gets referred to as "one of the great cities", you could feel the collective embarrassment and excitement. Every joke got big laughs, especially the SARS shirt (actually, people missed the "rocket ships" joke... but that one's so subtle and awesome).

I feel like the whole "Scott is Actually the Worst" take is a bit one note. He's lazy, self-absorbed, and runs away from hard conversations, but he also demonstrates that he can be sweet and caring. I don't know what dating pool everyone else had here in their twenties, but e.g. Ramona having seven evil exes who were all dirt bags is not that unusual.

The key exchange in the movie is:

Ramona: You're the nicest guy I ever dated.
Scott: That's... kind of sad.
Ramona: Yah... that is kind of sad.
posted by Alex404 at 12:40 PM on December 5, 2023 [4 favorites]

My only critical moment: I wish Ramona had been given more oomph in the right with her ex-lover, I wanted to see that battle hammer do some serious business and it got eliminated a bit too quickly.

Then let me third the recommendation for the new show (Scott Pilgrim Takes Off).
posted by mbrubeck at 6:45 PM on December 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

actually, people missed the "rocket ships" joke...

I'm embarrassed to be responding to myself, but I need to amend the record. The joke is:

Stacey: Did you really see a future with this girl?
Scott: Like... with jet-packs?
posted by Alex404 at 6:03 AM on December 6, 2023 [3 favorites]

Ctrl-F "Ruined a Whole Generation"

no results

🤔
posted by Phssthpok at 10:03 AM on December 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

So I watched the animated series and I really enjoyed it. Basically a complete variant of the story with a lot of nods to the original.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 4:39 PM on December 10, 2023