7. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
Sometimes films are silly. Silly, loud, too smart, too brash, but so undeniably enjoyable that you can’t help but just lose yourself in them. Cult film hero – and the man too good for Marvel – Edgar Wright’s first foray into Hollywood Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is just that: a film that indulges the weird, the nerdy and the wonderful without remorse, and the result is a metric ton of fun. Michael Cera, known for his young, awkward characters, gets to really stretch his abilities playing the young, awkward and borderline obnoxious musician of the title, who falls instantly in love with Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s Ramona Flowers, a rollerskating heart-breaker ‘with hair like this’.
However, she’s got some major baggage in the form of seven evil exes – hey, at least it’s not eleven – ranging from twin Japanese DJs to super-vegans to Chris Evans, and Scott’s got to fight and defeat them all if he wants to date her. So, he gets it together, and with that comes endless pop culture jokes, dizzying, fizzling fight sequences, symbolic hair dye changes, sarcasm, and giant hammers that fit into handbags. Scott Pilgrim bristles with attitude and knowhow, and it’s a supremely confident show of action, style and comedy that becomes even more enjoyable after rewatching (look, there’s probably like, ten jokes about PacMan you missed). Young? Apathetic? A fan of basically anything? Scott Pilgrim’s one for you.
Words by Lara Peters