The ex files

We live in a world of pop-culture references, some old, somenew. Check your Twitter feed: You’re as likely to find comments about a 1980sband or a 1990s TV series as you are discussions about the significance of thespinning top of “Inception” or the cultural impact of Pop-Tart Sushi.

For unemployed Toronto native Scott Pilgrim, however, theworld really is pop culture. Not only does he live in an environment that looksexactly like a comic book — every time his phone rings, an animated“R-I-I-I-N-G!” floats through the air; little commentaries and asidesconstantly materialize around him and his friends, just like VH1’s “Pop-UpVideo” show — he is frequently plunged into frenzied fights that play out likea mad mash-up of “Mortal Kombat,” “Super Mario Brothers” and “Double Dragon.”

Such is the painful price of passion in director EdgarWright’s hilarious, highly stylized “Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World,” adapted fromBryan Lee O’Malley’s popular series of graphic novels. Scott (Michael Cera), anunlikely warrior if ever there was one, must learn the hard way that love is a(video game) battlefield as he pursues the ravishing, seductively sullen RamonaFlowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and confronts a “league of evil exes,” eachof them a former flame of Ramona’s and each of them eager to make Scott, asJane Fonda used to say in her 1980s workouts, “feel the burn.”
Wright, whose previous gems include “Shaun of the Dead,” “Hot Fuzz” and thehysterically funny fake trailer “Don’t!” that was one of the highlights of“Grindhouse,” establishes the atmosphere immediately by transforming theUniversal logo into a blocky, low-tech graphic that looks like it might havecome from an Atari 2600 game.

Scott and his friends — including an embitteredex-girlfriend (Alison Pill), who’s the drummer for his band Sex Bob-omb andseems to have been born to snarl — live in the Toronto neighborhood ofBathurst, which is portrayed as an environment akin to the “Peanuts” comicstrip: Actual adults are all but invisible. Scott’s scene is slightly moresophisticated than anything Charlie Brown ever imagined, though. Wallace(Kieran Culkin), Scott’s sardonic roommate, is gay, jaded and sex-crazed,albeit in a world-weary way; almost every one of his remarks begins or endswith a seen-it-all sigh. Sex Bob-omb is not getting any play on Much Music;instead, the group is stuck performing in venues like The Rockit (“Fun fact:This place is a toilet,” a superimposed title tells us).

Meanwhile, Scott is very slowly recovering from having beenseduced and abandoned by Envy Adams (Brie Larson) — Canada’s answer to BritneySpears — by hanging out with Knives Chau (Ellen Wong), a high school studentwho has devoted herself to the relationship in that special/scary way only ateenager can. One look at American emigree Ramona’s irresistible Bette Daviseyes and otherworldly neon-cherry hair, however, and Scott is instantlysmitten.

“I feel like I’m on drugs when I’m with you,” he tellsRamona on their first date. “Not that I’m on drugs. Unless you are. In whichcase I do drugs all the time.”

Forget “Sleepless in Seattle”; this is “Tongue-Tied inToronto.”

While Wright surrounds the rocky romance with a virtualtornado of split-screen effects, in-jokes and witty lines (there’s even a jokeabout Uma Thurman’s “My Super Ex-Girlfriend”; now there’s something you don’tsee referenced every day), “World” ultimately turns on its sharpcharacterizations. Cera’s earnest awkwardness in the face of fierce competitionis completely disarming, and Winstead brings a fascinating sense of solemnityto Ramona, a woman who shields her heart behind quirky quips and awell-practiced bad attitude. The promiscuous gay pal is now a well-wornstereotype, but Culkin impressively plays against expectations, turning Wallaceinto a very funny, highly observant — and slightly demented — gossipy guardianangel.

The Evil Exes also emerge as amusing personalities,particularly a peroxide-soaked Brandon Routh as an all-powerful vegan with afew dirty secrets and Chris Evans as Lucas Lee, an insufferable superstar withthe cockiness of a young Clint Eastwood and the immaculate grooming of TomCruise.

Ridiculously entertaining and visually dazzling, “World”inspires the same impulse as a great video game: As soon as it’s over, you’llwant to press the “reset” button and play it again.