At some point this week, without any particular inspiration that I remember, I decided it was time to watch Scott Pilgrim vs. the World for the second time. I had really liked the film when I first saw it -- it just closed out my top ten of that year -- but I'd remembered feeling sort of exhausted by its repetitive seven-act structure. When I saw it at #418 (92%) on my Flickchart -- oh yes, that was the inspiration -- I decided to revisit it to see whether that ranking is a tad too generous.
I checked Netflix to see if it was streaming there, and was glad to see that it was.
Then I scanned to see the other results that come up as similar films when you search for Scott Pilgrim. I couldn't help notice a movie called Oh, Romana!, whose poster looks like this:
The reason this is funny is that the movie almost certainly has nothing to do with Scott Pilgirm. Except this: Both have a character named Ramona.
I certainly wouldn't have caught it except that Ramona Flowers, the character in Scott Pilgrim who has the seven evil exes Scott must fight, has become a bit of a breakout cultural icon. I've heard people mention loving her in a number of different contexts. It's probably the ever-changing hair color. Or actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Or the fact that she goes her own way.
Oh, Ramona! has nothing to do with her. It's a 2019 romantic comedy from Romania. So does that make it a romantic Romanian Ramona? Here is its premise as written on Wikipedia:
"Oh, Ramona! follows the main character Andrei from his point of view while he steps into adulthood and dealing with romance. Andrei has a crush on the "hottest girl in school", Ramona. Later on another girl Andrei meets on a vacation, Anemona, is charmed by his sincerity and dorkiness and he ends up being torn between the two girls he loves. To be able to choose, Andrei has to introspect his life."
Written by a Romanian with English as his/her second language, I'd say. No judgment.
From the poster it looks like it's trying to evoke something like American Pie, a very different type of coming of age movie from Scott Pilgrim, if we can even call that coming of age. At 22, Scott should have already come of age ... though he does start the movie dating a high schooler.
So the only reason the movie seems to have come up is that they both have a character named Ramona.
Now, I can understand if it were the other way around. The point of a search term is to be able to help someone find something whose title they can't exactly remember. If a prospective viewer were searching for Scott Pilgrim and couldn't remember the exact title -- maybe they thought it was Ramona Flowers vs. the World? -- you'd want Scott Pilgrim to come up in a search by the word "Ramona."
But when the searcher already knows the name of the movie, producing Oh, Ramona! as a search result is basically just deception. It's basically saying "We are blatantly looking for any reason for you to click on something, and hope that you are in love not only with Ramona Flowers, but with her actual first name."
Then again, I suppose you could make the argument that Cristina Jacob, the writer-director of Oh, Ramona!, specifically chose that name for her character as an allusion/homage to Scott Pilgrim, which may well have been a cinematic touchstone for her. Or, more cynically, perhaps she thought her viewers would make the same mistake Netflix imagined they might make, clicking on this movie for its apparent similarity to something they already love.
I'd watch to see if the homage extended further than the title -- thereby actually sort of justifying the "similar films" designation by Netflix -- except that that's exactly what they want me to do.
As for my actual second viewing of Scott Pilgrim on Friday night, I liked it about the same amount as I remember liking it previously, and felt similarly exhausted by the structure. Then again, I was sort of just exhausted anyway. It was Friday night and I'd run nearly six miles earlier in the day. So it was inevitable that I took a number of short "naps" as I finished the film's final 30 minutes.
One thing I will say, though, is that although I enjoy Ramona Flowers as much as the next guy -- or girl -- the young star I was most delighted to see here was Anna Kendrick. (There are quite a lot, you remember, including Brie Larson, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans and Mae Whitman). Not because I thought she looked so much younger, but because she's responsible for my single favorite line delivery in the whole movie.
I love this movie's balance between presenting the fantastical and capturing a genuine reaction to it. People's minds aren't exactly blown by the fact that characters seem to appear from nowhere and can fly through the sky as they fight, but certain eccentric things stretch their capacity for comprehension. Take the moment when Matthew Patel arrives at the battle of the bands as Ramona's first evil ex. It's not the moment he arrives that prompts the great Kendrick reaction, but it's when he extends his villain taunt of Scott to a kind of Bollywood dance that Kendrick drops the following:
"What?"
Or maybe it should be:
"Wut?"
It's so brilliant not only because of Kendrick's delivery, but because of what it implies. Like, "I've accepted everything that's happened thus far, but this particular weird thing is so weird that it leaves only a single word of gobsmacked disbelief at my disposal."
That single word alone is worth my watching seven distended evil ex battles.
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