I just learned music could be good, like, two weeks ago.
A while back, I wrote about musicals. The short version is that musicals are basically the only time a movie is able to really express interiority. The audience is not supposed to understand that people are actually breaking into choreographed song and dance routines*. Rather, music is supposed to denote that we have crawled into the mind of the protagonist, and seen an expression of their innermost feelings. Seriously, though. Go read that link.
Scott Pilgrim Vs the World is a musical. Not just because it has an awesome soundtrack. Instead, it is best understood as a movie exploring Scott Pilgrim’s budding relationship with Ramona Flowers. Awesome, and awesomely entertaining**, as the fight sequences are, we shouldn’t understand them as things which really happened within the real world as presented in the movie.
**HERE THERE BE SPOILERS**
We know this because no one else in the world behaves as if they have super powers, or as if Scott Pilgrim has super powers. Scott Pilgrim can fly. Do we ever see him flying around Toronto? No. Scott’s band can summon a spirit-gorilla to fight for them. We never see that come up during rehearsal. And in a world where every Vegan has super psychic powers, it defies belief that anyone is serving lattes with real milk.
Instead, we have a movie about a pair of broken people in the beginning stages of a relationship, trying to sort out their lives. For three or four weeks* they rehash each of their past relationships and try to find some closure.
In fact, I’ll go a step further. Scott Pilgrim is very good at being insecure. If the movie is from the POV of Scott’s mental landscape, then we can understand Ramona’s character arc as not her growth, but the process of Scott getting to know her. At the beginning of the movie, we audience members are asking ourselves “what the fuck does she see in him”. We’re meant to ask this question, because it’s what Scott is asking himself. It therefore seems plausible that Ramona is way more into Scott than is shown in the beginning.
Scott “wins” by discovering the power of self-respect. As he is introduced to each “evil” EX, he has a moment of insecurity. He doesn’t feel like he can measure up to her past. Ramona tries to assure him that she’s with him now, and the past is the past. Each time Scott does battle with one of her EXs, he undertakes very nearly the same mental journey Ramona herself must have taken around that person. First Scott is in awe of them, then he gets ground down, and finally he’s determined to overcome them. It’s telling that Scott only once defeats someone in combat. For the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth EXs, he basically realizes whatever it was that made Ramona leave that EX, and that gives Scott power over the EX.
As a representative example, when Scott learns about Mae (and I do love Mae’s poetry!), he simply refuses to engage with the idea. His new girlfriend had “phase” where she dated a girl! How can a man compare with that!? Ramona has to help him out with that one, basically showing him that he can bring Ramona as much pleasure as Mae could. Also, get over your lesbian fetish.
This approach works for the duo (Scott is the POV character, but Ramona is an equal partner of this journey) right up until the confrontation with Gabriel. The movie gets incredibly on-the-nose at that point; the only thing that can defeat Gabriel is Scott Pilgrim’s own self respect. Scott Pilgrim has been on the wrong journey all along. He can’t be worthy of Ramona, he can only be worthy of himself, and sort of hope that he and Ramona still have something in common once he’s healthier.
Doing all this self discovery while facing homelessness is a scary prospect. Good thing Scott got around to it in time to find a woman with a nice apartment…
*Since writing the previous post I’ve seen the Sound of Music. Near as I can tell, that’s the one exception to this rule.
** I should figure out a way to use the word “awesome” in that sentence at least once more.
*** Ramona changes hair color every 1.5 weeks. She goes from Pink to Blue to Green.
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