thefulcrum.ca | Sept. 2–15, 2010
movie reviews
featured review
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World AGAMERS, INDIE LOVERS, and nerds alike: you just might orgasm over Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. The movie, which takes place in the world of Toronto indie subculture, follows Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) battling the seven evil exes of his new girlfriend Ramona (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) to win her heart. Oh, and it’s inside a video game. This fact is never mentioned, or questioned by any of the characters in the movie, so it’s best just to accept this, move on, and enjoy the bad guys exploding into coins. The world that the characters live in, based on the comic book that the story orginated from, is fantastic—you just might walk out wishing our world was that cool. The movie cuts rapidly and doesn’t waste time explaining its differences from the real world, so some might have trouble following it. But if you can accept it and go with the flow, it’s one hilarious ride. —Allan Johnson
GOLDEN OLDIE
The Switch
The Kids Are Alright
Harold and Maude
JASON BATEMAN AND Jennifer Aniston offer star clout to The Switch, a typical romantic comedy with some unique twists. When Kassie (Anistion) decides to conceive through artificial insemination and overlooks her best friend, Wally (Bateman), as a potential sperm donor, he drunkenly washes her donor’s sperm down the drain. Forced to choose between replacing the sperm and losing the friendship, Wally decides to—yup, you guessed it. Seven years later, they reunite with each other, joined by the child they don’t know they share. Neurotic characters are the only thing that derail this otherwise cliché plotline; all the standbys of the male lead being stuck in the “friend zone,” the kooky female not being aware of how awesome her friend is, and the competition from the hunky guy are all present. The kid has his moments of cuteness, but also extreme annoyingness: he’s way too mature for someone whose mother is obviously lacking the maternal gene. Despite its predictable ending and underdeveloped characters, The Switch has many laugh-out-loud moments and allows Bateman and Aniston to play unique characters, which they do well. —Sarah Duguay
SINCE IT WASN’T the most widely talked about movie this summer—the chatter over Inception has drowned out everything else—this review should begin with a short overview: The Kids Are Alright is about two teenaged children of a lesbian couple who decide to fi nd their biological father for the fi rst time. The movie is disorganized, which made it difficult to see on which characters the story was focused. As a result, none of the characters were very developed, and it was hard to feel any real connection to them. If you did manage to develop a liking to a character, it would not last—even the most likeable character was made to look like a villain by the end. Despite these problems, when the movie ended I was left thinking that, for all its differences, this family seemed like any other, with problems and challenges of raising two children. Check this movie out if you’re in the mood to be reminded of how normal your family really is. —Joshua Flear
IF YOU FEEL like you’re at a crossroads in your life, that you don’t want to grow any older, or really just want your degree to be completed already, try this classic film. Harold and Maude centres around the unlikely relationship between young 20-year-old Harold and 79-year-old Maude. Harold, obsessed with the idea of death, lives without affection in his parent’s mansion, driving a hearse and scaring away any dates that his mother arranges for him. Maude, on the other hand, vibrant and hell-bent on living a full life, and has a habit of showing those around her how little they can control in their lives. When these two meet, it’s a love story like no other. Yes, it’s a love story—an unconventional, satirical, completely unique take on the boy-meets-girl scenario, which will have you laughing, crying, and marvelling at its unapologetic irony. —Charlotte Bailey
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18 arts&culture
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