5. Scott Pilgrim vs the World
Derided by some for being style-over-substance, and by others for being pretentious crap, Edgar Wright's adaptation of Bryan Lee O'Malley's graphic novels was so maniacally faithful to its source material that it went over the heads of many and landed squarely in cult-classic territory. However, despite its knowing nous and quirky style, the film follows the same pattern of all the others on this list. Michael Cera plays the eponymous Scott, a slacker musician who lives with his best friend Wallace - the comedy friend and provider of many a witty aside. Scott then falls for Ramona, who in this case is
literally the girl of his dreams. Their relationship is beset by her seven evil exes, whom Scott must defeat in battle in order to win Ramona's heart fair and square. So far, so normal, I suppose. Scott Pilgrim is an unusual, comical and extremely entertaining film built around the classic ManCom framework. The script is odd enough to be entertaining whilst also being funny and endlessly, relentlessly quotable. The cast and the characters are all given plenty of good material and make it work, and the visuals are wonderful with the graphic novel style rarely feeling gimmicky. Each of these individual components could so easily have fallen flat without the careful work of Wright in putting it altogether in a way that makes it far than the sum of its parts - a cult classic and a worthy addition to the list.