Scott Pilgrim

Directed by Edgar Wright. With Michael Cera, Anna Kendrick, Mark Webber, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Distributed by Universal Pictures. Running time: 1 hour, 52 mins. Parent's guide: PG-13 (profanity, cartoon violence, sexual candor) Playing at: area theaters

LET THE CULT mongering begin: among this week's new DVDs is Edgar Wright's "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. " The wigged-out comedy bombed at the box office ($31 million), but its small, devoted following claims it's as totemic among the Net generation as "The Big Lebowski. " Michael Cera has the title role as a 20-something who falls for a girl with seven ex-lovers, all of whom he must fight before a romance can commence. The story is cute, but the medium in this case is the message - it's visually designed by Wright to reflect Scott's Xbox, comic-book culture background.

Scotty Pilgrim has come unstuck in space. Scott, 22, bass guitarist of Sex Bob-omb, a Toronto garage band, is a human who jumps from encounter to objective like one playing a video game, endeavoring to get from Level 1 to Level 7 without getting zapped. Scott is played by Michael Cera, the Generation Y love puppy who in repose resembles a stick figure and in action a human joystick. Both of which make him the right dude for the job. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a ridiculously entertaining romp based on the graphic novels of Bryan Lee O'Malley and directed, with mash-up mastery, by Edgar Wright ( Shaun of the Dead )

"Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" has a take-off on the arcade game "Dance Dance Revolution" that Scott plays with his (first) girlfriend, Knives. "Ninja Ninja Revolution" is not a real game. However, Cera and Wright hope that if the movie becomes a hit someone will produce it. - Howard Gensler

Animal Kingdom Down Under and dirty, David Michôd's murderously compelling crime saga takes place in Melbourne, among a group of thuggish brothers, their smiling, sinister aunt, and a newly orphaned teenage nephew caught in the fray. With Guy Pearce, mustachioed, as a cop. R Cairo Time Patricia Clarkson is radiant in this bittersweet and beautiful tale of two strangers - an American and an Egyptian - who spend a few days together in the bustling, baking-hot city on the Nile.

You know what's cooler than a million dollars? A billion dollars. That line from The Social Network , delivered by entrepreneur Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) to Facebook cofounder Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), captures 2010 at the movies. The Social Network and Inception , the films that best embody the year's mood, are about computer cowboys riding roughshod on and through the dreams of others, reconfiguring the landscape of private and public. Both films suggest that there's something even cooler than a billion bucks: Not caring about the money at all. In a year when five of the Top 10 box-office films are sequels - Toy Story 3 ; Iron Man 2 ; Twilight: Eclipse ; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 ; and Shrek Forever After - The Social Network and Inception are originals.

1. The Expendables (Lionsgate) $17.0 mil.   $65.4 mil.   2   $5,189    2. Vampires Suck (Fox) 12.2 mil.   18.6 mil.   2   3,774    3. Eat Pray Love (Sony) 12.1 mil.   47.2 mil.   2   3,930    4. Lottery Ticket (Warner Bros.) 10.7 mil.   10.7 mil.   1   5,399    5. The Other Guys (Sony) 10.2 mil.   88.3 mil.   3   2,927    6. Piranha 3D (Weinstein) 10.1 mil.   10.1 mil.   1   4,092    7. The Switch (Miramax)

Jason Schwartzman landed in Philadelphia last Sunday night ("9:03 p.m.," he reports), and soon thereafter found himself at the Ritz-Carlton hotel, whereupon he spied - well, let him tell it: "Are you familiar with the band Spoon? They were in the lobby, and . . . I was scared. The way that my eyes saw the band was like out of a movie: With the angle of my eyesight, I happened to look right at a guitar case as it was being carried through the door and I scanned up and there was the lead singer, Britt [ Daniel ]

FOR A MOVIE that's so hip in terms of its visual style, "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" has been in the works for a long time. The process started in 2004 when director Edgar Wright first got Bryan Lee O'Malley's graphic novel shortly after publication. Just off "Shaun of the Dead," which features its own unique mix of styles, Wright was instantly drawn to "Pilgrim's" hyperkinetic mash-up of comic book, video game and manga. "This is your next movie," he thought. But it wasn't.

WITH WARS on two fronts and the economy in the toilet, Hollywood may post its richest year ever, some $10.6 billion in sales. Yeah, people go to movies in tough times, and ticket prices are up, but it's more than that - this was a good year for movies. Or so my record shows. I gave out more A's and near-A's this year than I can remember. I gave a B+ to "Easy A. " I gave a B+ to Tony Scott. I kind of liked "MacGruber. " I haven't graded this liberally since the late 1980s, when I used to go to happy hour before screenings.

PARK CITY, Utah - The Sundance Film Festival prides itself on independent and personal filmmaking, but no movie in this year's lineup felt as intimate as Mark Webber's The End of Love . His second feature as a director was shot in his Los Angeles home with several friends playing versions of themselves. It presents Webber as the single father of a 2-year-old boy portrayed by Webber's own son, Isaac Love. There is, however, one small difference between the real-life Webber and "Mark" in this film: His son's mother is still alive.

WITH WARS on two fronts and the economy in the toilet, Hollywood may post its richest year ever, some $10.6 billion in sales. Yeah, people go to movies in tough times, and ticket prices are up, but it's more than that - this was a good year for movies. Or so my record shows. I gave out more A's and near-A's this year than I can remember. I gave a B+ to "Easy A. " I gave a B+ to Tony Scott. I kind of liked "MacGruber. " I haven't graded this liberally since the late 1980s, when I used to go to happy hour before screenings.

You know what's cooler than a million dollars? A billion dollars. That line from The Social Network , delivered by entrepreneur Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) to Facebook cofounder Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), captures 2010 at the movies. The Social Network and Inception , the films that best embody the year's mood, are about computer cowboys riding roughshod on and through the dreams of others, reconfiguring the landscape of private and public. Both films suggest that there's something even cooler than a billion bucks: Not caring about the money at all. In a year when five of the Top 10 box-office films are sequels - Toy Story 3 ; Iron Man 2 ; Twilight: Eclipse ; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 ; and Shrek Forever After - The Social Network and Inception are originals.

LET THE CULT mongering begin: among this week's new DVDs is Edgar Wright's "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. " The wigged-out comedy bombed at the box office ($31 million), but its small, devoted following claims it's as totemic among the Net generation as "The Big Lebowski. " Michael Cera has the title role as a 20-something who falls for a girl with seven ex-lovers, all of whom he must fight before a romance can commence. The story is cute, but the medium in this case is the message - it's visually designed by Wright to reflect Scott's Xbox, comic-book culture background.

" New Avengers " seems to be a misnomer. A majority of the lineup has been together for more than five years, and it therefore can be argued they are the most experienced as a unit of all four recently launched/relaunched " Avengers " teams in the Marvel Universe. Plus, the team's biggest guns all seem to have more important and visible gigs elsewhere. Luke Cage is now in charge of the Thunderbolts ; the Thing is still a member of the Fantastic Four . Spider-Man and Wolverine , of course, appear in enough titles every month to clear cut a whole forest.

Animal Kingdom Down Under and dirty, David Michôd's murderously compelling crime saga takes place in Melbourne, among a group of thuggish brothers, their smiling, sinister aunt, and a newly orphaned teenage nephew caught in the fray. With Guy Pearce, mustachioed, as a cop. R Cairo Time Patricia Clarkson is radiant in this bittersweet and beautiful tale of two strangers - an American and an Egyptian - who spend a few days together in the bustling, baking-hot city on the Nile.

1. The Expendables (Lionsgate) $17.0 mil.   $65.4 mil.   2   $5,189    2. Vampires Suck (Fox) 12.2 mil.   18.6 mil.   2   3,774    3. Eat Pray Love (Sony) 12.1 mil.   47.2 mil.   2   3,930    4. Lottery Ticket (Warner Bros.) 10.7 mil.   10.7 mil.   1   5,399    5. The Other Guys (Sony) 10.2 mil.   88.3 mil.   3   2,927    6. Piranha 3D (Weinstein) 10.1 mil.   10.1 mil.   1   4,092    7. The Switch (Miramax)

A sheriff in Carterville, Ill., says singer and reality TV actress Tila Tequila complained that audience members pelted her with stones and feces during an outdoor music festival in southern Illinois. Hardin County Sheriff Tom Seiner said it happened early Saturday at the 11th Gathering of the Juggalos, an annual weekend festival for fans of the band Insane Clown Posse and other groups from Psychopathic Records. Tequila (real name Tila Nguyen) told TMZ.com that the rowdy crowd pelted her with stones and feces during her performance before chasing her backstage and into her trailer.

Directed by Edgar Wright. With Michael Cera, Anna Kendrick, Mark Webber, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Distributed by Universal Pictures. Running time: 1 hour, 52 mins. Parent's guide: PG-13 (profanity, cartoon violence, sexual candor) Playing at: area theaters

"Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" has a take-off on the arcade game "Dance Dance Revolution" that Scott plays with his (first) girlfriend, Knives. "Ninja Ninja Revolution" is not a real game. However, Cera and Wright hope that if the movie becomes a hit someone will produce it. - Howard Gensler