Trope Talk is my way of dishing out and breaking down the timeless and the tiresome of cinema’s most recognizable tropes, archetypes and formulas. When we think of romance—rom-coms and love scenes and date movies— we probably don’t think of Edgar Wright; the only thing tying them together for many of you reading this is that this month is both Valentine’s Day and Febgar Wright here at FTS. But to me, Wright’s love and devotion to genre homage are a kind of romance too, and what many people don’t realize is just how filled with love, friendship, and romance many of his films truly are.
Edgar Wright’s most beloved and iconic films are, of course, his Cornetto trilogy: Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), and The World’s End (2013). Shaun of the Dead is, out of the three, the most romantic—I mean, it was even humorously marketed as a romantic comedy with zombies. Simon Pegg is bumbling but oh so endearing as the titular character, as he pines for his ex-girlfriend, trying so hard to win her back after the banality of their relationship’s routines becomes too much for her to stand—and he continues to fight for her even while fighting the undead. For a horror-comedy fanatic like me, this is actually the most romantic thing I could think of, and Wright weaves the zombie tropes seamlessly through this more human dimension of the film.
Wright also has a keen understanding of the strong bonds of friendship, and while this isn’t the focus of our commercialized incarnation of Valentine’s Day, I’d argue that when depicted as honestly as it is in Edgar Wright’s movies, it can be just as moving and heartwarming. Hot Fuzz is a buddy cop movie in which our protagonists (played again by Pegg and Nick Frost) don’t start out as buddies at all, but rather we watch their odd couple bromance blossom as they act out and progress through every cop/action movie trope, eventually saving the day, too.
The World’s End shows Wright’s love for sci-fi tropes—namely, those Body Snatcher-esque alien robots. And, it also shows the lost love between old friends, the way age and time can tease and test those bonds (and the way those sci-fi tropes can potentially force those bonds back together again). I think this film is the most poignant and mature of the three, but all three do feature genre homage as something more than just that. Yes, Wright is showing his own love for these movie genres, but he’s also using those genre’s tropes to tell truly human stories—stories that have plenty of love in themselves.
Since Valentine’s Day is, commercially anyway, all about romantic love, I want to also talk about Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010). Another homage to some element of nerd pop culture (old school video games and, of course, the very graphic novels on which the film was based), it is also Wright’s most outright romantic film, even if it’s still considered a quirky, unconventional rom-com by traditional standards.
Michael Cera is an adorably sensitive leading man; he fights for his love by video game fighting (replete with power ups and coins and garage-rock music) Ramona Flowers’ 7 evil exes. Their courtship is earnest even despite all the video game aesthetics and the resulting surrealism and absurdism. The romance between Scott and Ramona is genuinely moving and funny—and you root for them to be together.
I think crazy-color haired Ramona Flowers is, for the most part, an awesome heroine within the new breed of rom-com which Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is so much a part of. She is filled with unbridled agency and exudes non-conformist cool. Yes, Scott kind of does have to save her by the end, but the heroic act doesn’t undermine her independence. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a rom-com that anyone could love—but I do think it helps if you love Edgar Wright or, at least, love pop culture like he clearly does.
So, if you’re not all that interested in romantic love this Valentine’s season but are looking for the love between friends, or perhaps just the love between one director and the many genre tropes he adores so devotedly, then Wright may just be the best Valentine any of us could ever ask for after all.