sanjay_varma

This film is very focused on presenting the point of view of Senegalese trinket sellers who work in the vicinity of the Eiffel Tower. The narration is poetic. It is stitched together from interviews with a few different migrants. They tell a tale of being in exile from their homes, and trapped in limbo in a foreign land. We can hear the different speakers in their native tongue, at a low volume, while the narrator calmly translates their statements into English.

The visuals are a bit limited, they show variations of the same scene over and over again, a blanket resting on the city pavement with trinkets on it. It added a lot to the film when they showed a few shots of the flop houses where these migrants live, ten to a room.

This is easily the best teen movie of 2010, and I think it also qualifies as Michael Cera's best role because of a strong script with lots of quips and natural sounding dialogue. Behind the movie's flashy production there are a number of relevant themes centering around dating and relationships. Cera's Scott Pilgrim is ready to start dating again a year after ex-GF Envy dumped him. But instead of dating someone his own age he aims low by dating a 17 year old high school girl, a choice that inspires both horror and pity among Scott's friends. Then he meets a girl with real potential, Ramona, who changes her hair color every few scenes, and has to fight her seven ex's.

Of course the main lure of the movie will be it's flashy production during the fight scenes. Michael Cera does a great job of performing matrix-like fight moves, while wearing a confused look on his face as 1980s arcade noises and effects commence. The fight scenes are all hilarious.

I might add that "Knives" Chou, the 17 year old high school GF, is probably the funniest east Asian stereotype since Long Duck Dong of 16 Candles. But Knives is portrayed in a way that is funny without being offensive.