Love: Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness, Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together, and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Universe

“Scott Pilgrim is one of my favorite comics.” Lots of people say that. That’s because it’s awesome.

Scott Pilgrim is 23 year old living in Toronto. He meets Ramona Flowers and is smitten. Author Bryan Lee O’Malley’s comic is almost perfectly observed: tiny bits of interaction, nuance, dating intricacy, and wholesale anxiety. Perhaps the most wonderful part is that there’s a wonderful casualness to the style and the world. Most of scenes are simply hanging out, but rather than reflect significant boredom, there is instead a focus on just the kinds of things that make hanging out with your friends so exciting and fun.  Scott Pilgrim is perfect realism… except when it’s the exact opposite. O’Malley mixes the aforementioned realism with vivid fantasy tones and video game logic.  In order to date Ramona, Scott must defeat her 7 evil ex-boyfriends. Expect expansive fight scenes, traveling through the mystic void of “subspace”, people who go to “vegan school”, item rewards, robots, stat bonuses, and plenty of metaphysical indie rock. It’s a stunning amalgamation really.

The world is populated with wonderful characters, but Scott and Ramona a truly something remarkable. Scott is a perfect central figure. He is intensely like-able and funny, yet a ball of walking anxiety, stupidity, fear, and forgetfulness. He’s not exactly a simpleton, but there is something intensely “regular” about him. And it goes far beyond the “lovable loser” routine. Scott transcends it. Truth is, I can’t think of a similar central character off the top of my head. That in and of itself is wonderful. Ramona meanwhile transcends her own cliche. Nothing seems more inane right now than the recent influx of “magic pixie girls.” It’s a new cliche, flighty wonderful women who make your boring personality and existence more tolerable because they are so adventurous and spontaneous. At first Ramona may seem to be a perfect example. She’s a rollerblading delivery girl (even in winter), she dyes her hair every other day, she’s got some serious martial arts skills, and actually travels through subspace! But Ramona is anything but an empty shell of surface things that make a woman’s “personality.” That’s what a lot of males writing women don’t seem to get. Personality is suplemented by details (wheras their male character seem like empty templates of longing). Ramona has so many layers. Her complexity and distance are earned. She is marked by a sense of grief. Her “running” from people is not a sign of dejecting the screenwriter, but a reaction to her past. She is someone more mature than who she was, but not sure how to be the person she wants to be. My word, it seems as if O’Malley *GASP* knows an actual woman who is actual person! You know, instead of the crazy version of magic pixie girl they see as their desire from the outside looking in. Nowhere are Ramona’s layers more evident than in the most recent book (Volume 5). It’s a revelation to me. O’Malley has transcended the magic pixie girl. Good show old chap!

Tangent: There’s a movie coming out. Edgar Wright is doing it. Just going off Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, you may think that’s not exactly a perfect choice. But Spaced is the closest thing in tone to Scott Pilgrim I’ve ever seen. It IS perfect. Most of the casting is complete home runs. I have two big worries: 1) Scott Pilgrim is played by Michael Cera. Don’t get me wrong, I love Michael Cera. But the dude kind has his own style of delivery… And he seems nothing like Scott Pilgrim. So I’m worried. Hopeful, but fearful. 2) Looking over the casting… it seems like they’re cramming 4 books into one movie, maybe even 5 or the whole story (there are 6 stories). This seems like a huge, huge mistake. The four or five action sequences alone could take up so much running time that it wouldn’t leave room for the minor scenes of the story. And That’s what makes Scott Pilgrim so wonderful. I’m absolutely terrified. If anything it seems like it should be broken up episodically into 3, or at least certainly 2 movies (There is a great natural break at the end of the third book). Don’t get me wrong. I love everyone involved. I’m just scared as hell.

Don’t Like: Watching a Boxing Match Between Two Guys With AWFUL Jabs

I’m an armchair boxing fan; in the sense that my dad is a big fan and has given me a knowledge base with which to appreciate the sport. So I casually watch at work or catch fights I’m interested in. I was watching a fight on “Nothing but Knockouts” (great show) and caught one of the worst things that happens in boxing:

Two fighters with awful jabs.

It’s just most painful thing ever to see two guys circle each other and get the most awkward, slow punches as they pretend to have some boxing skill. They can’t even use it to distance themselves and create space. It’s like watching two kids make an action movie in their back yard, it’s almost cute that they’re even trying.

The good news is once they expend some effort trying to box, they get tired and just start brawling.

This is much more fun.

The fight descends into a basic barfight where two guys slug each other til the other one goes down. While it’s not exactly a wonder to behold, it satisfies part of the pugilistic reasons we watch boxing in the first place: to watch someone who is not us get hit really hard.

Oddly enough, the fight had a spectacular finish where one dude was finally starting to lose after 4 rounds of draw boxing. He’s getting absolutely pummeled, then the other dude drops his hands almost to brag. BOOM. Connects with a stealth right and he’s down for 10. The guy barely even knew he had been knocked out and thought they had called the fight for some reason.

Like: Total Badasses

The Following people were total badasses:

Teddy Roosevelt (president, soldier, bad-ass, probable racist)

Muthafuckin’ Omar (stick-up man)

Mean Joe Greene (his name is mean for f-ing sake)

Bob Gibson (he would drill his own players in batting practice)

Ogie Oglethorpe

John Matrix

Han Solo

Truckasuarus

Ghengis Khan

The Asian Cobra

Marburg

Throwing Stars (no link necessary)

Muldoon

And please, more suggestions for bad asses!

Like: Fred Simmons, King of the Demo

I saw The Fist Foot Way yesterday and it was pretty freaking hilarious. It was shot for 70,000 dollars (read: nothing) and while it looks like it, it still totally rocks. The entire thing rests on the shoulders of Danny McBride who plays Fred Simmons, “King of the Demo”. McBride is absolutely hilarious and rather than just be a vehicle for jokes, he ends up giving the kind of performance that turns this movie into a strange, little character piece. It’s kind of a remarkable feat given how rarely that happens with this kind of humor. A lot of people who have seen this and McBride’s other work think he’s going to blow up. I’m one of them. I caught Pineapple Express a few months ago and he’s fantastic in that too. The Fist Foot Way is being released pretty shittily in the summer against Sex and The City. Even with Will Ferrell’s and Adam Mckay’s names attached as presenters it won’t help cause nobody knows.

Here’s a clip of Fred Simmons on Conan: Enjoy