Ghost World (2001)

the audience applauded

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Is Ghost World a pretentious film, or merely about pretentious people? Watching and studying it again, I think it is a bit of both. Of the notable criticisms, most are aimed at protagonist Enid, highlighting her behaviour as selfish and cruel, and condemning the overall mood of pessimism, disconnectedness and morbidity. But what teenager hasn't gone through that phase? Placed precariously in a zone of uncertainty after graduating high school, her best friend quickly assimilates into the small-town adulthood, donning a chain cafe uniform and hunting for the perfect two bedroom apartment. Enid would rather die an early death than succumb to such plainness. The opening sequence captures the heart of her vitality against the sad, seedy backdrops of American suburbia, cycling through various states of disregard and then back to Enid - her walls decorated with the same feverish red as her costume, her bob cut swishing from side to side in careless abandon to Indian surf rock. Director Terry Zwigoff, working together with Daniel Clowes, makes a distinct departure from the source comic's colour scheme and style from the very beginning, replacing a melancholic swathe of blue with warmer colours that pop out from the backdrops; clothes and props flushed with pink, red, orange, hair dyed bright green and blue, neon signage blaring amongst hellish light. The mise en scène is Enid's style, and Enid's style is a way of life, never boring, never plain, always changing. Thora Birch is even more defiant than she was in American Beauty. Fashioning a distinct rebellion through her makeup and wardrobe, she recreates styles so precise that they are mistaken for wannabe efforts, so obscure that no one could possibly be impressed. But Enid doesn't want to admit that fashion alone can only take you so far; she's equipped with a unrelenting supply of sarcasm and cynical wit, delivered with dry, deadpan amusement, but not much else (her remedial art teacher fills in the gaps of her genius work). She keeps a sketchbook documenting the hallway of freaks and geeks she encounters in her everyday life, both relishing and resenting the fact that she could occupy a double page spread of her own. So when she stumbles upon Seymour (through an act of teenage viciousness), it's a sign, a soulmate sent from heaven. How could she have ever been best friends with Rebecca anyway? They're polar opposites - Becky blond and pretty, always fending off advances from boys, while Enid's aura of superiority and disgust is her potent version of skunk spray: keep away. But she's fascinated by Seymour, firstly as a strange new specimen for her to prod and play with, and then as someone with a fairly satisfying existence in a seemingly dead-end town. He's portrayed by Steve Buscemi, who has the kind of look that screams character actor, but through sheer persistence and talent has forged a remarkable career. In one of his best performances, he never lets the character become a cliché, despite all the signs pointing to that eventuality: middle aged, single, an eccentric collection, a "funny looking" face, all of which combine to form a human blob that cannot to relate to 99% of society (see how Buscemi is outright unapologetic about how his party might slide into sleaziness, and notice that it isn't out of malice). He can relate to Enid, though, because she shares the same predicament. Their friendship blossoms into something oddly sweet and endearing, with Enid determined to right her wrongs and find Seymour a date; if he's weird and can't find romance, then she's bananas and doomed forever. But wait, isn't that Enid's way of life? Is it a choice or not? The title refers to the utter banality of the suburban existence, of lonely TV meals, of nuclear families festering in apartment blocks. There was a deliberate effort to minimise the presence of extras, an added element of inertia; no one coming or going, or even living, just a few figures here and there trudging to their next destination. It's all a tad dated, because nearly two decades on that unnamed small suburban town is now bustling and medium sized, and we've all just accepted that corporate logos are going to be involved. We all know a Melora, a bouncing, overly shrill cheerleader that sometimes you just want a break from, but hey, at least she's enthusiastic about the next stage of her life (and summer holidays, and extracurricular, and breakfast, and finding a penny on the ground...). Modern art is weird and meaningful, sometimes both, sometimes neither, but taking aim at it is just low hanging fruit (and the art snobs will turn it against you anyway). The film grips me in a different way now. If I had watched this even a couple of years ago I would have been captivated with Enid's self-stylised rebellion, letting no one and nothing define how she lives her life. It's not about what colour her hair is or what weird mask she wears, but the specific attitude of individualism and personality. Isn't the appeal of that something universal? But now it's almost painful to revisit - I see how clearly she is enamored and disappointed with herself at the same time, and it hurts too much, reminds me of too much. Mostly I just sympathise. Getting on that bus is a brave and revealing move, knowing that she is about to be all alone again - it wasn't the town, it was her all along. And I'm hoping to god that she finds what she is looking for.

This movie really surprised me. I thought it would be another movie about outsider teens and how bad they have it, with no real message. But I was wrong. Ghost World is one of my favorite movies of 2001, and probably even of the 2000s. It is a little too mature for young kids, but once you turn thirteen you should be fine (it's not violent or anything). It definitely deserved its Oscar nom. If you haven't seen Ghost World, then check it out. Seriously.

Reviewed September 6th, 2015 - 1st viewing (IFC HD) Based on the comic book by Daniel Clowes, the film centers around two teen outcasts struggling to find their place in the world after they graduate high school. Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) has plans to get a job and an apartment, however Enid (Thora Birch) is decidedly less motivated, having spent her whole life just skating by. She must inevitably learn that there are very real consequences for her actions—even in indifference.The film makes for a very interesting social commentary about the difficulty of maintaining relationships and our struggle to find our place in the world, the quintessential tug-of-war to find the balance between being true to ourselves and hiding pieces of us to fit into society's accepted norms. It makes a provocative statement about how society and media make us feel we have to choose between acceptance and being who we are. The word normal is constantly thrown around, particularly by her best friend Rebecca, serving to illustrate the fundamental differences between the two girls, with Enid spending most of her life seeing what she wanted to see, only to discover her and Rebecca were not as alike as she thought.Enid's boredom leads her to play a practical joke on a lonely man searching for a woman he met in a personal ad. After the two girls observe his melancholy and follow him to his home, Enid discovers he collects and sells records. They hit it off and she starts to see that he's not so different than her. Believing she's found a kindred spirit in a man twice her age, she takes an interest and starts spending time with him, promising to find him a date.Her journey is an illustration of how we can get so caught up in our own lives that we fail to see that we are neglecting those important to us—our relationships—the very thing we rely on for emotional support. And when someone we care about fails us, we either internalize it or lash out. Enid's required art class poignantly illustrated that artistic license cannot so easily be acquired, but instead of working to cultivate her own creativity, she chose to use an old art piece borrowed from Seymour. This unfortunately would also prove to have dire consequences.Seymour finally got that call from the girl he'd been looking for in the ad and Enid encouraged him to meet her. After they hit it off, he sadly became self-involved and blew Enid off, never giving thought to the fact that she had genuinely cared for him. And so with that disappointment causing her to only think of herself, frustrated that he was settling for a woman he had little in common with to be 'taken care of', Enid recoiled back into her comfort zone—Rebecca. Unfortunately, she failed to see that while she was caught up with her infatuation with Seymour, she wasn't being a friend to Rebecca.Naturally, it hurt her when Enid only wanted to hang out with her because Seymour blew her off. Rebecca did not lie to be malicious, but to protect herself, as she was beginning to see for the first time that perhaps their 'friendship' was based more on convenience than true affection. I can relate on this point, as people continually undervalue the importance of balance in their lives in terms of their relationships as a whole. If you only focus on one, the others will suffer, and you can't play people like fiddles and expect them to still be around when the fog clears. Part of discovering how to be happy is figuring out how to balance all the elements within it, instead of ascribing to the misguided belief that you can hand pick a few and that will be enough.The story seemed to stretch a little beyond its reach as Rebecca grew increasingly frustrated with Enid's attitude. Instead of Enid simply admitting she didn't feel she could be honest with her, she insulted her, causing Rebecca to lash out. This hurt Enid, penetrating the walls she thought she had in place, and her pain sent her fleeing to Seymour for comfort, succeeding in getting out of him what she wanted only to turn on her heels and run. She practically begged Rebecca to let her move in with her, only to disappoint her by not keeping her promise. I found it odd the two girls never hugged despite supposedly being best friends since childhood, and I was a little miffed by Rebecca's disregard for Seymour's feelings, coming off as more malicious than jealous, which seemed wholly unjustified.The title represents Enid feeling as though she's a ghost in a world filled with people. She feels invisible and inconsequential, something I think we can all relate to. She struggled through the whole film to figure out what she wanted instead of settling on complacency. Once she realized her only dream was to disappear, she had to find the courage to take that final step.Throughout the whole ordeal, Enid didn't seem to understand that her irresponsibility and feigned indifference had real consequences, and that her actions were hurting people. The end felt a little disjointed to me, as if they were trying to wrap everything up in a bow so we knew where we left each of the characters with little statement on the friendship she had taken for granted, which is what I found more interesting, especially considering the comic focuses more on both girls which I would've found to be more intriguing.FINAL VERDICT: More interesting that it appears, the in-depth look at what lies just beneath the surface of our lives and the intricacies of our relationships made for a profound watch, if only left feeling a little bewildered by the end.6.5 of 10.0

I just watched Ghost World again, after a gap of about 5 years. This time around I'd just read the complete Ghost World which collected all the strips, and also had additional stuff including the original script of the film. And I found it a very difficult film to watch.The pacing seemed extremely slow and with it's like watching a train wreck in slow motion (especially the version I watched which was 137 minutes over the theatrical release of 111 minutes). Rebecca gets demoted to a supporting character (and seems very dull) and Seymour, I think perhaps Seymour (who was barely in the comic) should have been a main character, but in a different film. Of course the comic was episodic in nature rather than a continuous story, so they did well to adapt this at all. Perhaps though that's why Josh was demoted to a minor character and Seymour replaces him and Rebecca in many scenes.The film (much more than the comics) is about that period between being a teenager and becoming an adult. It's funny thinking about where the two main actors after the film. Scarlett Johansson's (Rebecca) career took off after this with over 30 films to her credit (think Black Widow) but Thora Birch (Enid) has only done 12 films since. Steve Buscemi (Seymour) being a character actor has done 50+ films. Not that the number of films counts for everything, but to me it shows an interesting balance and a period of transition for them, much like the characters in the film.