It's Popular, now it Sucks: Nerds
Aug. 14th, 2010 12:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mcity"Scott Pilgrim": The end of the nerd as we know him:From "Scott Pilgrim" to "Knocked Up," the movies' favorite whipping boy isn't what he used to be. What happened?
I like how the review or whatever it is managed to completely miss a major theme of the movie. Despite a flaming sword growing out of Scott's chest labelled "Scott's self-respect", it somehow doesn't get the fact that the movie, in part, is about Scott growing up. Both he and Gideon, to some extent, saw Ramona as a prize, not a person. At the end of the movie, he doesn't declare he's going with her, he asks.
Also, what's this with the movie being "self-conscious"? Since when was that a bad thing? It's one thing to employ tropes for deliberate effect, and another to be a pretentious jerk. I basically checked out of Mullholland Drive after the whole thing with the Box and the empty room. I didn't like it, but I know a lot of people did, and I never called it "self-conscious" in a sort of preemptive verbal self-defense.
And finally, if hipsters are people who try to be cool by being non-mainstream, and you dislike them, and a work featuring them mocks them, why is that a bad thing? Is it because you hate hipsters so much that you don't want them portrayed in leading roles at all? Is that how you feel? Did a hipster beat you up in school? I think we're getting to the core of some issues here; tell me about your mother.
Visually, Scott reads as a nerd, a geek, man-boy pariah. Yet he carries himself like an aw-shucks high school football hero -- a blazing sun around which fortunate planets revolve. Other characters warn Scott to give up the chase, not because he has no hope of winning Ramona, but because she's not worth it, or because there are other things he should spend his time on. He’s treated no differently than the young Tom Cruise would have been treated on-screen circa 1984 or so: as a desirable viewer surrogate who's free to move about in his cinematic universe, unencumbered by preconceived notions. Other characters may underestimate, stereotype or dismiss him, but it’s their problem. As far as the film is concerned, Scott Pilgrim is the man.Which is weird, because Cera's type-casting is the precise opposite. Cruise is the good-looking leading man with the million-dollar grin, whereas Cera is usually the nerdy sidekick with the hesitant smile. Even when Scott's manning up, the movie manages to make fun of him subtly, with his absolutely hilarious running style.
I like how the review or whatever it is managed to completely miss a major theme of the movie. Despite a flaming sword growing out of Scott's chest labelled "Scott's self-respect", it somehow doesn't get the fact that the movie, in part, is about Scott growing up. Both he and Gideon, to some extent, saw Ramona as a prize, not a person. At the end of the movie, he doesn't declare he's going with her, he asks.
Also, what's this with the movie being "self-conscious"? Since when was that a bad thing? It's one thing to employ tropes for deliberate effect, and another to be a pretentious jerk. I basically checked out of Mullholland Drive after the whole thing with the Box and the empty room. I didn't like it, but I know a lot of people did, and I never called it "self-conscious" in a sort of preemptive verbal self-defense.
And finally, if hipsters are people who try to be cool by being non-mainstream, and you dislike them, and a work featuring them mocks them, why is that a bad thing? Is it because you hate hipsters so much that you don't want them portrayed in leading roles at all? Is that how you feel? Did a hipster beat you up in school? I think we're getting to the core of some issues here; tell me about your mother.
