Ghost World

Ghost World is endearingly odd, a dryly funny satire of the awkward phase after high school and before adulthood. I greatly enjoyed it; my partner strongly disliked it, finding it awkwardand unfunny. It's certainly not a movie for everyone, and I suspect you'll know in the first half hour whether it's for you.

The movie is about Enid and Becky, two high school friends who seem to own the anti-cool clique and have no real plans for life after graduation other than to get an apartment together - though Enid has not officially graduated and needs to take a remedial art class in the summer in order to finish out her credits. (There's more than a passing resemblance to the Daria and Jane relationship, for those who remember that show.) Becky seems to be handling the transition better: she gets a job and picks out an apartment. Enid instead seems insistent on taking an apathetic, hipster approach towards everything and everyone, deeming it all so lame as to be unworthy of effort, other than her affection for Seymour, a dorky record collector many, many years her senior who has few friends and even fewer romantic prospects.

Without ever being in your face politically, Ghost World has great social commentary on art, relationships, and consumer culture. It's a weird movie, and you'll either love it or roll your eyes at it, but I hope it's the former.

For a few weeks, the daily life of Rebecca and Enid, two teenagers who spend their time complaining and pesting, with a decided opinion on almost everything, without any diplomatic filter. One could almost think they were educated in France, at least partially. Thus, following their 4381st perfidy of the week, they meet Seymour, a lonely middle-aged music aficionado. Surprisingly, in contact with Seymour, Enid discovers the concept of benevolence. Despite the 25-year gap, they seem connected with real affinities. In fact, the film takes place at a time when Rebecca and Enid have just graduated from high school, and what seemed to be gratuitous malice is probably more an uncontrolled anger based on the fear of leaving their adolescence to join a world they hardly appreciate: the adult society. They fear to grow up and move on. In a way, Seymour was a transition or a key milestone for Enid: the perfect guy, at the perfect time. Thanks to Seymour, Enid has matured and learned to live differently, with a significantly more open mind. The world does not revolves anymore around herself: she is now part of it. Time to take a bus to discover it! Like Jules Winnfield said during the coffee shop conversation, within Pulp Fiction (1994), she's now gonna walk the earth from town to town, meet people, get in adventures.

The movie is complex, smart and well constructed. And the cast is globally awesome, with a special mention to Steve Buscemi, Thora Birch and Illeana Douglas.

I guess different people can extract different meanings from GHOST WORLD and all nail exactly why it was made. For me, it was the chronicle of that small group of people who don't, and probably never will, quite fit into this world. They're here on the fringes though, just existing in their own parallel universe, or their own "ghost world." Though it sounds depressing, this film is hardly a downer, it's full of humor, satire and acute observations on life. The overall production is excellent (the brightness and colors in the photography, costumes and sets is stunning)... plus it pulls off the impossible by successfully steering toward dead-on seriousness near the conclusion to drive it's point across.

It begins at graduation with Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson), two very perceptive high school outcasts who see right through the facade of their juvenile peers and want nothing to do with it. For Rebecca this self-ostracizing is just a passing phasing, but for Enid you get the strong impression this is going to always be her way of life. It's not that she doesn't get it, it's that she's doesn't understand IT or people or the games of life. There's a brief emotional turning point for Enid when a cruel practical joke backfires and she becomes involved with the target, the nerdy and very sardonic Seymour (Steve Buscemi), who may just be the kindred spirit Enid was looking for. The shared scenes between Enid and Seymour, though doomed to take a bad turn, are handled with tenderness by the director and actors and are quite memorable and touching.

Highlights are an excellent scene in a blues club that just about nails the American outlook on life and our lack of reverence and the ones in Enid's remedial art class, with the most misguided and pretentious teacher (Illeana Douglas) you could imagine. The girls are wonderful, and Steve Buscemi was unfairly overlooked at awards time (big shocker). Anyway, he's never been this good before. The fact this premise, these ideas and these original and interesting characters came from a comic book makes me realize I've completely overlooked the artistic possibilities within that medium.

"Ghost World" is not a film for everyone. Its characters are certainly unusual but not necessarily crowd-pleasers. It also features a vague ending...something which most film viewers would not appreciate.

Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) just graduated from high school. However, they are far from the typical 17-18 year-olds. In many ways, they are like hipster versions of Daria (from the wonderful cartoon series)...but with a darker, nastier edge to them. They don't fit in with those around them and seem to enjoy giggling among themselves about how stupid and ridiculous everyone else is. However, through the course of the film, these two sullen young ladies who try very hard not to care find themselves caring. Rebecca finds a job and Enid invests her energy in a social outcast, Seymour (Steve Buscemi). All the while, their own relationship with each other becomes strained...mostly because their lives now are taking different directions.

This film features some truly terrific acting. While Scarlett Johansson went on to great fame, the real stand out in this one is Thora Birch...who since has had a respectable but much more low profile career in pictures. The script also is very nice, with some interesting characters. I particularly thought the art teacher (Illeana Douglass) was fascinating...mostly because she was so very, very monumentally flawed as a human being. But it also suffers a bit because it's so very hard to care about these young ladies...at least until much later in the film. It would be easy to dislike them and just turn off the picture...which would be a mistake. A challenging and odd film...but worth seeing if you are patient and are looking for something different.

A significant number of reviews I have read regarding Ghost World complain about "nothing" happening. This is simply untrue. Having read the book by Daniel Clowes and being sceptical and admiring of it in roughly equal measure, I was very pleased to see the film far surpassed the book in excellence. Another book that can be likened to Ghost World is The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, and even The Graduate shares themes with Ghost World. The narrative revolves in all three around characters who have reached a juncture in their life where the road splits many different ways, causing confusion.

The wonderful thing about Ghost World, however, is that Enid's reluctance to grow old is accentuated by the other characters ensuring their lives advance. Even Seymour "grows up" when he finally meets his attractive blonde. Constant reminders of Enid's immaturity make this film. When the two visit Josh's apartment and he is not in, Enid scrawls an immature and explicit note to him and hangs it on the door knob. But we hear Becky ask "Are you really gonna leave that?" This is one of the first signs of a difference between Becky and Enid. More follow, particularly the job hunting fiasco, in which Becky quickly finds and keeps her bum counter job in a coffee house, where as Enid jumps from job to job, her immature cynicism ensuring job loss.

Plenty happens in this film. Not least the ending, which, contrary to something I have read, is not an ending that the director rashly consturcting to rescue a failing storyline. Thankfully, the ending from the book was retained for the film, and it proves to be similarly poignant on screen. This is not a bus to nowhere, it is a bus out of nowhere. Enid finally finds a direction in her life - even if the direction is wide and undefined.

My only criticisms of Ghost World is that 1) the directing was tepid, showing little flare whatsoever, which detracts from the film and 2) Enid's university application in the book was not kept in the film. This was a particularly pivotal point in the book I felt, and it was unfortunate it was not kept in the film.

However, the acting is enjoyable - Buscemi is wonderful as the lugubrious Seymour and Birch is commendable as Enid. The comedy is a plus point in the film, however, I object to it being defined as a comedy, as the book was not and people may have seen this film expecting incisive comedy when the real story is far far more subtle than the frank comedy.

Definitely see this film. The desperate nature of the two protagonists is quite heartbreaking, the comedy characters are suitably cliched to ensure lightweight laughs (such as the hilarious store manager), and the ending is very good.

I give this film eight out of ten.